Favors for the Dead
by Banana Smoothie
Summary: "Who are you?" "Cass." My heart sped up. "Hart?" Her eyes got a bit brighter. "Do you know who I am?" I said something intelligent like "Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
1. All Therapists Must Die

**Wow. I'm an awful person.**

**WHO YOU LOVE!**

**Kind of. Because I totally have not done anything with Favors of Shadow since October. And that is completely because I am possibly the laziest person on this side of the universe. And also a procrastinator.**

**So, what's new with me since I last updated this?**

**Wellllllllll...**

**Guard ended, but it's coming up soon (we're doing Cirque du Soleil this year). I'm no longer a freshmen in high school (class '14, ftw). I joined choir for the last semester of school. I auditioned for and made chamber choir. I auditioned for and made jazz choir (which is way harder). I tie dyed a t-shirt or two. And I wrote this chapter!**

**YAY!**

_**Ella Grace, daughter of Nyx**_

I must really be an awful person. How can I be so awful and yet so awesome at the same time? That's the question you philosophers should tackle next. _How can Ella Grace be so awful and so awesome at the same time?_

Why am I awful, you ask?

I have no idea.

Clearly, though, awful enough to be submitted to torture by the hands of fate. Curse you, fate!

And this, my dear readers, is what I was thinking while I sat in that awful office, on that awful couch, with the awful smell. That I was an awful person.

Because only awful people are subjected to therapy.

"It's nice to see you again, Miss Grace."

I sat up straight, my hair curling around my shoulders like it had been when I woke up and decided I was too awful to look good. I chewed Trident Layers. It's like candy that you can chew for hours and hours!

Really, only like, an hour and a half. But still. I would totally get paid in gum.

Back to the [awful] topic at hand.

"I know. A week is just _too_ long to be without your wonderful company, Mr. Goldsdmitt." I gave him a winning smile.

No one gets my particular brand of sarcasm anymore. Being happy all the time is very hard. No one understands. Except for Bobby McFerrin. He's way legit.

"So, how are you coping?" He looked at me as he adjusted the bobble heads on his desk. He had a notepad in front of him with notes scribbled on it. I wondered if I was interesting enough for him to do a case study on me.

Probably.

I looked at him, confused. "Coping?"

He sighed, running a hand over his balding head. "Do we have to go through this every session, Miss Grace?"

I answered with an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

"Please, Miss Grace."

"Why do you keep saying my name all the time?" I asked, tugging at my hair. "It's kind of funny."

"Miss Grace."

"Sorry." I grinned. "I'm an instigator."

"I noticed."

"You wouldn't be the first one to do so." I smiled again. Of course, I had fallen from instigating psychopaths to instigating therapists.

And those aren't _that_ far away from each other.

"You know," I started cheerfully, "being a therapist always seemed masochistic to me. I mean, who would want to sit around listen to people's feelings all day? There are some really messed up people in the world. I wouldn't want to have deal with really messed up people all the time." Dealing with one long enough to kill her was hard enough.

He scribbled on his notepad. "Do you know any messed up people?"

I choked back the "I am one," answer growing in the back of my throat. "Yes. I think the human population is pretty messed up. I can't think of anyone who isn't." He scribbled again, smiling slightly. Which meant that, that was way more inwardly revealing that I could allow. "I mean, some people like mustard on their French fries. That's all kinds of freaky."

He stopped writing mid-letter. Then he looked at me, real serious. "I'm sure you have some kind of personality disorder, Miss Grace. It will be a delight trying to find it."

I cocked my head to the side. "I like to think I'm my own personality disorder. One day, it might even be named after me. That's when I'll know I made it in the world."

He raised an eyebrow. "I think you might have more than one."

"Can I be a narcissist? I've always thought that was a fun word."

Like he always did when I was particularly rambly, Dr. Goldsdmitt changed the subject abruptly. "Tell me about the past few months?"

"Well..." I bit my lip, thinking. "My dad grounded me for making a bunch of marshmallows explode in the microwave. Nathan taught me how ski. I went on a trek to find the Fountain of Youth with Captain Jack Sparrow, where I accidentally stole my pirate father's life while trying to save it. There was also a Norse god with a hammer thrown in there somewhere. Same old, same old."

"Your wit is staggering."

"Isn't it just?" I grinned, swinging my feet.

"I was referring to the months before that."

"Of course you were!" I said happily. For I, Ella Grace, am a happy, awful narcissist. Yay!

"You've avoided the subject ever since we started these sessions," he said seriously. "Even though this is why you were put in therapy."

"I don't need therapy." I flapped my hand at him. "Go find someone who eats French fries with mustard and therapute them."

Mr. Goldsdmitt cleared his throat and looked at my file, like he hadn't already memorized it word for word. "You were missing for two months, Miss Grace. You, your brother. Mr. Jane was also gone. As was your friend Karson."

"Karson and David had nothing to do with what happened while we were gone," I reminded him gently. Karson was quite conveniently on a trip to Florida around the same time. David was with his ailing grandmother.

That was ridiculous, of course. The whole situation was kind of ridiculous.

But the Mist over the mortals eyes was enough to convince everyone otherwise. Heck. We were able to convince them that the twins had been with my dad the whole time!

But the Mist couldn't hide the fact that Nathan had an ugly scar roughly the size of a sword on his stomach. Or that, when we'd gotten back, my entire right arm was covered in burns. On the way home, I tried to do my little explodey trick on something that breathed fire (still not exactly sure what it was). For future reference, if you want to be as awesome as I am, pick something else to do. Because that was one of the few bad ideas I'd ever had.

Karson and David weren't exactly unscathed. But it was all little things; wounds that had partially healed into cuts and scraps, things that could be hidden. Pez was a freakin' miracle worker!

Nathan and I did our best to cover it up. Tried to pull it off as a car crash.

Then someone got into their little heads that we had been kidnapped for two months. I'm not really sure how that worked. Did Nathan get gutted by sword in our daring escape? Maybe he fell on a fallen log with a really sharp protruding branch. And maybe I dipped my hand into a vat of burning oil! Because that's we do in our spare time.

Yep.

Actually, at first they thought Nathan had kidnapped me. But that just wouldn't do. So now, we were being forced into therapy for trauma. Or something.

I didn't really feel traumatized. Unless you counted what trauma I received from the therapy itself.

When I walked out the door (thankfully), Nathan was sitting in the waiting room, already finished. "So," I asked him. "Did you have fun torturing therapists today?"

"When is that ever _not_ fun?" he asked, flinging the magazine he had been trying to read on the table in front of his and getting up. He dusted off his pants. "I told them I was a ninja today."

"What? You didn't mention that you were a half-human, half-god who was destined to die young at the hands of a monster?"

"Or a crazy psychopath."

"That was redundant."

"Yes. Yes, it was." He smiled.

And for a little while, everything was normal.

But I knew, deep down in Nathan's happy little Grace-heart, he was not so happy. And he hadn't been since we'd left camp.

"You ready to go?" he asked, twirling the car-keys around his index finger.

"And leave this wonderful place? It might be hard."

"Think of it as character development."

"Oh! In that case, lead the way," I said, bowing to him as he pushed opened the wooden doors.

"Come, young padawan. You have much to learn."

* * *

><p>Cass had been in a coma for almost six days. I'm not sure how much of it was real and how much of it was her biding time. Maybe she had never really been in a coma at all. Maybe she had just been trying to collect herself enough to leave us again. Leave Nathan.<p>

On the sixth night, when the Apollo kid went in to check on her, her bed was gone. Neatly made. Obviously devoid of a comatose demigod. Lee was gone, too. There was nothing to prove that there had ever been anyone named Cass Hart at Camp Half-blood at all.

I had been in as much of a rage as I ever am. Seething silently. "Masked by cheer and witty remarks," as my therapist often tells me. I was so angry, I started cursing her in Ancient Greek while I slept, which wasn't as often as I would have liked, but often enough to show off my impressive vocabulary to whoever I shared a room with.

And all of that rage was totally messing with my light-hearted behavior! It really is a tragedy to see someone so amazing brought down so low.

So now, a little over a month later, school had started anew. I was now a sophomore. I'd been introduced to the monster that was geometry. And Cass was gone.

Nico was gone, too.

It hadn't really made sense for him to stay with us so long. He didn't live there. He didn't go to school there. At least he'd had the piece of mind to tell us he was going, beforehand. Didn't keep Karson from getting angry.

Those two are in denial of their loving worship of one another. Next time they're together, I'm working a little Match Maker magic.

That might be a long time from now. No one's been able to get a hold of him since he left.

So, Nathan and Karson were both sulky. On the inside. Well, Karson is always sulky on the outside, too. You can't really notice anything different. Except she has a hotter temper, which I didn't think was possible.

And it makes my job as her eternal tormenter so much easier!

Should I slack off in my job because she's going through a tough time?

...

Of course not!

Who do you think I am?

Well, I'll tell you one thing. Ella Grace is not a slacker. I refuse to slack. Unless it's on my geometry homework. Then slacking is warranted.

When I walked into our house, Karson was there, standing up in the kitchen, looking intently at something.

I crept in with my usual ninja stealth, which involved not falling over, and peeked in at her. The kitchen faucet was running, a sliver of light from the window just bright enough to make a meager rainbow. She was watching a blank Iris Message. I mean, the whole screen was white, like when you look outside in the winter and all you see is snow. Unless she was looking at the climate of Antarctica, she had tried to get a hold of Nico again.

Then, without warning, she threw a book at it. The whole thing dissolved.

"Easy there, partner," I said, waltzing into the room. "I'm feeling a taco."

"You always want tacos."

"You're right," I admitted, looking in the pantry. "I should start stocking up."

I glanced over at her. "You're at our house quite a bit, lately."

"Where else am I supposed to go?" she asked snappily.

"Maybe your own house?"

"Why are you so anxious for me to leave?" Now, that one wasn't snappy. It was depressed.

Depressed! In my own home! She was totally throwing off the fung shui of my lovely household.

"Hey, no need to be a Gloomy Gus!" I said cheerfully, picking out a Hot Fudge Sundae pop-tart (the snack of champions and awesome people).

"Well," she replied, once again rather snappily. "We can't all get over things as quickly as you do. It's like it never even happened."

"It did," I reminded her. "But it's over. Thea is dead. Cass is gone. Nico is back where he came from. We're still here."

"It's not over!" Karson said, pounding her fist on the kitchen table. "I'll be reliving it every day of my miserable life."

"You're a hero, darling," I said absently. "It's an occupational hazard."

"How can you _not care?_" she practically screamed. I thought she was going to throw a chair at me.

"Because I'm secretly an automaton?"

Then, she really did scream. She also threw a spoon at me. Once that was done, she stomped out of the room, blowing past Nathan, who was lazing on the couch, and slamming the door on her way out.

I undid the wrapper of the pop-tart and munched on it, hopping up so I was sitting on the kitchen counter.

Nathan walked in. "Was that-"

"Yes," I answered.

"Was she—"

"Angry?" I finished. "Yes."

"Was it—"

"Because of me? Of course." I smiled at him, but even I could tell it was a little off. Having a spoon thrown at you can really mess with a girl.

Nathan sighed. "Why do you always do this to her? She's having a hard time."

"Because angry is something different than sad," said a small voice from the living room. Alan walked in and reached up for the fruit bowl on the counter. I handed him an apple. "She's been sad for too long."

I looked at my baby brother. "That's way too deep for my shallow, awesome little heart."

"You're a better person than you think you are, sister," he said with a small smile, and then he walked into living room again.

"I hate that kid," I said fondly.

Nathan grinned. "I'm sure the feeling is mutual. Throw me a plum."

**NO NICO! WHAT IS THIS OUTRAGE!**

**Yeah, yeah. I know. I know. Believe me. Callie's given me enough grief on the subject. **

**But should you be worried? Of course not! I'm too much of a fan girl myself to keep him away.**

**He will return! And Cass. And Lora. And David.**

**Maybe.**

**The maybe is just in case I don't get enough reviews telling me that you want them back. I'm at the whim of popular demand. While you're at it, tell me if you want any other old characters back. I'm well aware I had too many.**

**Sorry if Ella and Nathan weren't quite as awesome as they usually are. I'm still getting back into the swing of things.**

**I'll have you know I wrote this chapter in less than 24 hours! I'm not sure if that's good or not. -.-**

**Also, did anyone else read the sneak peek of **_**Son of Neptune?**_** Mr. Riordan is even more of a tease than I am!**

**If you haven't, there is a link on his twitter and his blog somewhere.**


	2. Death by Fur and Disney Songs

**This has taken me way too long! I totally agree with all of you. I was going to be a good person and update speedy quick. But this chapter gave me all sorts of problems! Which is why it's a bit...worse than usual. I knew when I wanted to happen, but I was having a loooooooooooooot of trouble making it happen.  
>Sigh.<br>The life of a writer's block prone teenager.  
>Anyway, hopefully next chapter will be out soon! AND GUARD CAMP IS IN SIX DAYS! Awesome points for any reviewers who understand how MAGNIFICENT that is. 12 hours of crippling exhaustion and Chinese take-out, five days in a row!<br>!**

_**David Jane, son of Nike**_

Hello!

I been tasked with making this chapter (which I have already decided will be infinitely more awesome than the chapter before it, and all which come after.) You're welcome.

Now, I don't have an interesting visit to the crazy doctor to lighten the mood. All I have is my endless wit and charisma.

What else is new?

I think Ella is rubbing off waaaaayyyyyyyyy too much.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.

My life!

The past few months have been relatively easy. Surprisingly. Unlike my friends (and everyone else I've met in the last few months), I suffer from the disease of being too normal, even for a half-blood. So I slipped back into my life with relative ease.

Okay. So, right when I got back, it was tough. Mostly because of my family. The whole _what-did-you-think-you-were-doing-running-away-and-not-telling-anyone-getting-yourself-into-all-sorts-of-trouble-I-don't-care-if-your-mother-is-a-goddess-you-need-to-respect-me-and-my-rules _speech from my father was a little hard to handle. Breaking the news to my older brother that I was not only half human, but that, being the grandson of yet another goddess, so was our father, was also fairly difficult.

I'm not even going to begin to get into that conversation. Some things aren't made for public consumption.

"It'll be fine," Ella told me, walking down the street one day. "He loves you. People forget all sorts of things for love."

"Forgetting about the fact that someone chews their fingernails or has gas isn't really the same thing as forgetting someone is the child of a goddess, even a minor one."

She just flapped her hand. "Details. I'm a big picture kind of person, David. Besides," she said, scrunching up her nose, "love is love, right?"

Then, she tapped my shoulder, screamed "You're it!" and ran off in the other direction. The game of tag that ensued was epic and you should be sorely upset that you missed it.

Things with the people around me were somewhat easier to deal with. The Graces were all welcoming (their dad makes the best Mexican food, _ever._) even if the twins were disconcerting. Lora had faded into the background again, go figure. The only one with real issues was Karson.

Of course, Karson had always had issues. Major issues. She was angry all the time, had some weird love/hate relationship with Ella. Actually, it was more like amuse/hate. Ella was amused, and Karson hated it. It got better, what with the impending doom bringing us close and stuff. And then she had that thing with Nico that both of them refused to admit.

And then he left.

And, in a way, so did she.

Without the impending doom and all, she just slipped back into her old pattern. Being angry. Amuse/hate. All that jazz.

I hadn't talked to her in a while, because she was so silent it was difficult to carry any kind of conversation of substance.

Also, the last time, she stepped on my toe.

So, when Ella dragged me to the store to go shopping for school supplies and I saw Karson in the corner, looking at folders, yes. I ran and hid in the bathroom.

"David," said Ella, knocking on the bathroom door. "If you don't come out, I'll sing Disney songs really loud and dedicate it to you."

"You do that anyway," I accused.

There was silence, and for a second I thought that she might have given up. Of course, how I could think that when I know Ella at all, I'm not sure.

And that is why I wasn't really surprised when she kicked the bathroom door open.

But the guy washing his hands next to me was. He screamed like a girl.

"David Jane, I _will _torture you psychologically if you do not grow a pair and get out of the bathroom!" she said innocently as the guy ran out the still open door.

"But..."

Ella grabbed my arm and pulled me out. "Karson is still a friend. Idiot," she said fondly. "Come on. I saw a Buzz Lightyear folder over there and I want it. You're going to buy it for me in apology for making me go into the boys bathroom."

"_I _made you go into the bathroom?" I demanded. "Not true!"

"So true." Her eyes got wide. "Oh! Mountain Dew!" she exclaimed loudly, running towards the soda.

"Oh, no," I muttered. "Ella, if you drink that, you'll explode!"

"Yeah, I will!" she said enthusiastically. "With _awesome!"_

"No," I repeated, shutting the door to the mini fridge by the checkout counter. "You already had two Dr. Pepper's."

"Three, actually," she said proudly.

I raised my eyebrow.

"You're not my dad," she pouted.

"I'm acting on his behalf."

Ella put her hands on her hips. "Fine. But I want a Buzz Lightyear folder _and_ something with Flynn Rider's face on it." She held out her hand.

"Deal." I shook it.

The monster attack that afternoon was unexpected.

I know what you're thinking. When are they ever expected?

And, the good little demigod answer would be, always. _Always_ expect something with teeth to jump out at you. Or claws. Or poison. Or just really big muscles. Just really annoying stuff in general.

However, we hadn't been attacked since we'd gotten back. Not sure why. We have a whole tribe of half-bloods here. I wondered if the company Cass used to work for was helping us out still. I wonder if Lora was working overtime with her little ninja clan to keep us from getting half-killed every other day.

Considering how much trouble we tend to attract, I'm going to assume that she was.

Actually, everything after buying Ella a Flynn Rider backpack was kind of unexpected. What with the stuff and the person and things happening.

Good times.

After shopping for school supplies, somehow Mr. Grace had convinced us all to head up to the lake, which was a couple of miles away on the outskirts of the town. Nathan. Ella, Karson (reluctantly, might I add), the twins, and myself, crammed into a truck. And the fact that Ella was once again terrorizing Karson didn't make it any easier.

"You know," I said, after Karson had tried to punch Ella in the face and ended up elbowing me hard in the nose, "why don't I sit in the middle? Just for the sake of my health."

I would love to say that things got better once we actually got there. And they did. For a little while.

I occupied myself hanging out with Avalee and Alan, which was surprisingly entertaining. Avalee had brought her sketch pad and colored pencils, and she'd drawn a very life-like picture of Ella beating up a hippopotamus with a corndog. Alan's was a bit more realistic. Ella and Nathan beating each other up _over_ the corndog.

Karson was doing laps, probably for exercise or something. Nathan and Ella were having a water gun battle, squirting each other in the face and diving for cover behind rocks before the whichever one was the victim had time to retaliate. It was kind of like watching a gun battle on tv. They were really into it.

"You'll never catch me alive!" Nathan screamed, jumping over the rock Ella had dodged behind and blasting her in the head.

"Curses!" she said dramatically, rolling away, flinging sand everywhere.

And so it went.

It wasn't until the familiar rumbling and shaking of the earth began that any of us had the urge to panic. Growling echoed from behind the trees, like the kind is werewolf movies, only a tad bit more snarly.

Well, even then, I was the only one with the urge to panic. Oddly normal? That's me. Because, when a monster comes at you, you freak. That's what normal people, and even slightly abnormal people, have the instinct to do.

Not everyone is a Grace (or Karson). Not everyone is like Ella and starts quoting the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk ("Fee, fi, fo, fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!"). No. That would be incredibly odd people, i.e. not me.

Something growled again behind the cover the trees around us offered.

Ella straightened. "Hellhounds."

Karson flexed her weaponless fingers. "I need my bow."

"I'll cover you," said Ella. "Get the twins in the car."

"Why?"

"So, if for some reason we don't totally pwn, they can drive back into town," she said simply. "Duh."

I had long since abandoned any attempt to make sense of the twins abilities. They could hot wire a car and help with my math homework at the same time. Knowing how to drive seemed like a relatively normal thing. Even if they were, like, seven.

Ella flicked her fingers, sparks of blackness tainting the bright white of her hands. Nathan threw me a giant stick. I looked at it pathetically. He shrugged. "You bring your own equipment."

"You could fly at them, but I doubt that would end well," said Ella cheerfully, bending her knees like she was stretching for an aerobics class and picking up a big, sharp looking rock. "Three...two..."

All Hades broke loose. The rock in Ella's hand went flying threw the air, past the outer layer of trees. It hit something with a muted _cluck._ A wounded howl. Something dark, not to mention huge, slunk out of the shadows.

And when I say huge, I mean it. Like, this thing was the size of the truck. Easy.

There were more hellhounds behind, four or five in varying shades of gray.

I knit my eyebrows. "_Big_ doggie."

Ella blinked at the stick in my hands. "Maybe you can play fetch?"

"Maybe you could dedicate a Disney song to it?" I offered, slightly miffed.

Before Ella could offer a sufficiently witty reply, we had to dive onto the ground to avoid getting pounced on by 500+ pounds of furry death. Sand flew everywhere, sticking to wet spots on our clothes.

She rolled on impact, back on her feet seemingly before she touched the ground. She was crouching like a cat, one hand down for balance, the other crackling with power. "I'll take him."

"He's a monster!"

"So am I," she said, grinning. "And a heck of a lot cuter, to boot."

Ella launched at it, her white, sand covered legs flying through the air. The hellhounds only had time to look incredibly surprised, if a dog can even look surprised, before she made contact. Probably because no one had been stupid enough to jump at it before.

That's Ella Grace. Crazy enough to do things even stupid people wouldn't do.

But she overshot. She grabbed onto the forest of fur to keep from merely flying over the things head. It looked kind of funny, but the fact that she could jump over something as big as a truck was in itself impressive.

I didn't have time to watch Ella "pwn." I had my own fighting to do, and I only had a freaking stick. I looked at it forlornly. Maybe playing fetch was really my best bet.

One of the smaller ones launched itself at me. It was a runt, compared to the others. It probably saw that I was the weakest, took one look at the stick in my hands, and thought, "Hey! This guy is a wuss. I can totally bite his face off!" and the proceeded to do so.

I whacked it on the nose and jumped out of the way. Sand flew everywhere again. I'm pretty sure I got some into his eye, or else he was in awe of my mad, frantic dodging skills.

Then, out of nowhere, it howled. Not like, I'm-going-to-kill-you-with-my-scary-teeth or your-skills-are-so-great-I-have-no-chance-of-ever-defeating-you kind of howl. More like _holy crap, they is a freaking arrow coming out of my stomach!_ kind of howl. It turned to dust before my eyes.

I looked back. Karson was standing in the truck bed, reloading an arrow into bow. As I watched, she let another arrow fly, hitting another hellhound straight in the chest and making it erupt into sand. Alan and Avalee were sitting in the drivers seat, peering out of the window like they were watching a movie.

Nathan, having dealt with the last of the little ones, ran over to his sister, sword in hand.

For a minute, it looked like she needed the help. She was tired from the day of swimming, and for some reason, she couldn't make her little explosions big enough to have any devastating effect. But Ella had it handled.

She slid down from the huge dogs neck, running around it's feet, and getting perilously close with its legs, each of which were big enough to turn her into a pancake.

I screamed at her to be careful. As usual, I'm an idiot and she didn't listen to me.

Ella jumped at it again, but this time she slid on the sand. It looked like an accident. But when she got under it's chest, she threw out her hands in front of her, hitting the hellhound on the chest with a thud. Her hands blasted black. For a second, the dog didn't move. It just kind of stood there, over her, like it once again could not believe how stupid/crazy she was.

Then, like all of it's little friends, it blew up into dust.

"I think I stopped it's heart," Ella explained simply, twisting her wrist around and making it pop back into place.

Nathan gave her a high five. Karson jumped out of the truck, rotating her shoulder. "It's been a while since I shot," she said in a monotone.

"Slacker," said Ella teasingly. Karson scowled at her.

Amuse/hate. Amuse/hate. The cycle continues.

Nathan smiled, looking over at the twins, still in the car. They, however, were not smiling. Avalee was looking in the opposite direction. Then she turned around frantically. "More!" she shouted, just as there was a flash of gray, jumping over the truck. Another simply ran around, stopping for a scary moment to contemplate the twins maliciously.

Karson said something unladylike and brought up her bow, taking a shot at the closer one. But it was too hurried, and flew over its head.

Ella started cursing in French, crouching down again. Karson loaded again, this time taking careful aim. The twang of her bowstring sounded unnaturally loud. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something like bronze flashed through the air. For a split second, before the hellhound joined it's brethren in Hades, just beside Karson kill shot, there the glint of something bronze. A throwing knife.

Karson frowned, slightly confused, but she didn't stop to ponder before turning her bow towards the dog near the truck.

Or what had been the dog at the truck. There was only a pile of sand there now, undistinguishable from the rest of the sand at the beach. Another knife shone in the waning sunlight.

"What the—" Karson looked in the direction I had seen the flash come from the first time. Standing there were two people. A boy and a girl. One of them quite possibly the last person I would have expected to be reacquainted with that day.

The boy looked the girl standing beside him. "Nice shot."

She flipped another knife in her left hand and smiled slightly, but didn't respond.

We all looked at them both.  
>Then Karson shot Nico di Angelo with an arrow and went to hide in the forest.<p>

**I thought I would leave a little treat for you guys at the end. NICO'S BACK! And I'll have chapter three for you soon!**

**Keep on keepin' on.**


	3. Pesky Quests and Pomegranates

**And, once again, this took way longer than expected to finish. On the up side, I have all of chapter five pretty much done...**

**And I kind of know what going on. Kind of.**

**Yay!**

**Onward!**

_**Nico di Angelo, son of Hades**_

The Underworld, whether you are practically born to live there or not, is a depressing place. There's no sky. Everything is black and listless. And the people are just plain sad.

All of this was basically okay with me. I didn't really feel like being chipper.

I was sitting on a bench in Persephone's garden, surrounded by bulging pomegranates, giant apples, plants with blooms the size of my head. There was a particularly big pomegranate right next to my face. I was sort of tempted to just reach out and eat it. Maybe then, I wouldn't have to worry about what happened to the world above. I could just stay in the darkness forever.

So I just sat there for a minute, like a moron, looking at it, contemplating whether my life was depressing enough to perform a sort of pseudo-suicide.

I felt something hard hit my on the head. Rozzie was standing above me, her hand balled into a fist.

"What was that for?" I demanded hotly.

"You're staring at a pomegranate like it holds the answers to the universe and you don't think I know where your depressed little brain is at?" she asked scathingly. "You want to eat, do it after we find that stupid girl." She sat next to me on the bench and put her head in her hands.

A moment later, she looked at me balefully. "We've been here for almost three weeks, Nico. And we're no closer to finding her than we were when we got here. That's a problem." I'd spent enough time with her to realize she was working her way up to a point.

"We just need more time," I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

Rozzie looked at me, almost dully. "I don't think she wants to be found," she said simply.

"That's stupid."

"What? You think your overwhelming charm and cheerful disposition is going to have her running into your arms?" she asked, sarcasm dripping from her words. "Your dad kind of screwed her over."

"He was offering to help!"

"No, he used what he knew about human nature to make it look like he was helping," she said plainly. "When really, he was screwing her over."

I sniffed indignantly.

She smiled crookedly, albeit tiredly, and raised an eyebrow. "Are you really trying to say that if you were in that situation, you wouldn't have looked back?"

I thought about it. My dad wasn't really known as a trustworthy sort of guy. What if he hadn't kept his promise? With that going through your head, it would have been easy to just sneak a look over your shoulder, almost impossible not to.

I looked at her for a moment and shook my head absently. I wouldn't say she was wrong, but I certainly wasn't going to say she was right.

"We've tried everything, Nico, and we haven't found her."

"Because, apparently, she doesn't want to see me because my dad tried to help her out and her idiot of a husband didn't hold out on his part of the deal," I said bitterly.

Rozzie traced an old scar on her leg absently. "In a normal situation, this would be time for a change in strategy." Her voice was determinedly casual.

I looked at her inquiringly, but she was looking off into the distance, thinking about something of importance, no doubt. I was about to ask her what she had in mind, but the door that lead from the palace to the garden opened and a voice called out, "You're father wishes to address you," before shutting with a disconcerting slam.

I didn't bother looking back at whoever called, I just sighed a little and stood up from my bench. Rozzie hesitated before getting up herself.

"It's really dangerous, you know," she said after a while, walking quickly down the pathway to keep up with me. Small buds slowly bloomed where she past, like her anxiety was transferring to the plants.

"You knew that when you agreed to come in the first place," I told her irritably. The last thing I needed was her flaking out. I went through the door.

"Actually, I was talking about the way you've been thinking lately," she replied mildly, walking through the door behind me. She tugged on a strand of her hair.

I didn't say anything.

"And, I'm pretty much an expert when it comes to the consequences of dangerous thinking," she continued. I hoped to the gods she would stop talking.

Luckily, we reached the door behind which my father sat, and Rozzie had other things to worry about than my "doom and gloom attitude." Namely, my father.

"I always feel like he's going to smite me on the spot," she whispered wryly.

"At least he hasn't turned you into a hamster."

"Well, we all know my mother has some issues—"

"A hamster?" I interrupted. "Really? A hamster?"

Rozzie looked at me with her multicolored eyes. "Yeah, I don't really know what she was thinking. I would have picked something more ill tempered," she snipped back, sniffing.

"Like what?"

"Maybe a shrew. Or a mole," she thought aloud. "Maybe a porcupine. Something prickly."

"I agree," I said. "Then I could stab you."

The doors opened. Rozzie's pale, somewhat ashy complexion sunk into something that made her almost indistinguishable from the ghosts outside, almost gray. Her jaw unconsciously set into a mulish line.

She glanced at me and smiled somewhat lamely. "If he tries to smite me, I'm going it at least get one good hit in. Preferably one below the belt."

I massaged my forehead, trying to dissolve my growing headache, and walked into the room to stand in front of my dad. Rozzie stood a few paced behind me, tense, ready for anything, even a spontaneous transformation into a rodent.

"Son, come," said Hades, kneading his own head. He waved me closer. Rozzie stayed where she was. "What is the news?"

I looked behind at my companion uneasily. "There is none."

"None?"

"None," I repeated. "The lead we had was a false one." Although it was good enough that we had been running around for nearly three days trying to follow up on it. "We're back at square-one."

Dad sat back in his chair, slightly clumped down, his long dark hair falling over his eyes. "In this situation, I cannot help you."

"I know."

"Gods are allowed a very small window of interference. The fact that this is a quest complicates things even more."

"I know, dad."

"As if my life isn't complicated enough."

I bit my lip to keep my mouth from going off. It tends to do that sometimes.

"I must admit," he started again, "when you said you were coming for a quest, I assumed you would have finished it by now." Hades looked at Rozzie. "I even granted you friend my blessing so she wouldn't be so affected by the Underworld. And even _that_ won't last much longer."

She just shook her head in denial and smiled when I glanced back at her, but, now that it was brought to my attention, I would have been an idiot not to see it. Her brown hair was lank. She had black circles under her eyes, muted by layers of make-up I hadn't realized she'd been using, and her eyes themselves were almost dull. I'd realized her skin was ashy, but now I felt like a jerk, having not noticed all of it. She looked like she was dying.

Rozzie had been chosen to go on this quest with me for a few reasons. One, she was able to handle me at my most volatile, a side of myself that was at the surface constantly lately. Two, we'd fought together before. Three, she was a daughter of Persephone. This quest was going to take at least a few days (or so we thought). Any normal person would not last that long in the Underworld. Her mom would bully Hades into giving her his blessing, so that she wouldn't die. The lack of outdoorsy stuff was a potential problem. But we certainly hadn't planned to be here for more than a week. Two weeks might have been too much.

"Nico," she said seriously. "I'm fine." She ran a hand through her hair.

But, no. Now I couldn't ignore it. "We'll head back to camp," I told my father firmly. "If we come back, I'll be on my own."

Behind me, Rozzie bristled indignantly, getting ready to argue.

Luckily, my father saved me. Again. "Have one last meal. Say goodbye to your sister. Now, go get dressed. I don't want to stare at dirty children while I eat. It messes up my digestion."

The two of us scrambled out of the room. I rushed into my own room to change before Rozzie could start nagging me (a bad habit of hers). She knocked on the closed door once or twice, but evidently decided to bother me later and went to change, herself.

I pulled on a plain, clean t-shirt and some jeans that had no holes or mud/grass stains on them, rinsed my face to get most of the grit off, ran my hand through my hair, and was done.

At the moment, I wasn't sure whether I was glad that, for a girl, Rozzie takes a freakishly short amount of time to get ready. I mean, normally it was convenient, but today it just gave her more time to nag.

"I don't know what's got it into your head that I'm not able to stay," she chattered mulishly. "Seeing as I'm perfectly healthy."

I looked at her again. Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and she put on a skirt for dinner. There was a fresh layer of make-up under her eyes, and she was standing straighter. But the expression on her face was still tired.

"Nice try," I said, pushing the door to the dining room open. "But if make-up and a bit of effort could make you okay again, no one would be sick."

She sighed. "I'm fine."

"You're dying."

"That's a bit harsh, don't you think?" she said, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Not really," I replied. "Everything is dying."

Bianca was waiting for us at the table. She looked more solid here than she did when I talked to her at camp, which was understandable. She was dead, after all.

She smiled when we came up to her. She was still the age she had been when she died, which meant that I towered over my older sister by almost a foot. Even Rozzie was a few inches taller than her, and that didn't happen very often.

"So," she started, "I hear it's your last night."

Beside me, my friend set her shoulders angrily. I ignored her.

"For now," I answered. "I plan on coming back soon to finish the job."

Rozzie said nothing.

Bianca motioned towards our side of the table. There was heaping piles of fruit, crisp vegetables (which, unsurprisingly, were only touched by the daughter of Persephone), hunks of meat, tons of soups, mountains of bread, and giant slabs of fish.

We'd had to have tons of food transported down to the Underworld over the past couple of weeks. Eating food from the Underworld meant that you were kind of stuck here, alive or not. Rozzie, whose mother had learned that the hard way, had been particularly paranoid about it the whole time.

But we shouldn't have worried so much. Apparently getting food for us wasn't that hard. And I'm sure, even of he's a god, Dad has to enjoy a good cheeseburger every now and then.

It wasn't a particularly comfortable meal. Everyone just picked at their food, pushing it around their plates, awkwardly silent. Poor Bianca tried, chattering away about anything she could think of, but being dead isn't the most interesting occupation. Her days were spent having fun with a bunch of other dead heroes.

Roz ate her ramen slowly, paying attention to nothing specifically. There was a rose in a vase on the table beside her. It bloomed, closed, and bloomed again, in sync with her slow breathing. Suddenly she straightened. "Hey, Nico?"

"Yes..." I answered warily.

"That girl, the daughter of Apollo. What was her name?"

I was really glad she was looking off into space when she asked me, because I'm sure I started scowling, and I didn't want her to harp on about that too. "Karson."

"Karson..." she repeated, twisting the end of her ponytail around her finger. She lowered her spoon back into her noodles. "That person's husband was a child of Apollo." She started to stir absently.

I nodded woodenly and started shoveling garlic bread into my mouth. But I don't think she was paying me any attention.

"If we had a child of Apollo with us, do you think she would be less difficult?" she thought aloud.

"Roz," I said, irritated, "why would that work?"

The spoon clinked as it hit the edges of her bowl. "I was just thinking. I mean, people haven't changed much since her time. If I were hiding from someone just to spite them, and all of a sudden they bring in another daughter of Persephone, I'm going to trust them a bit more. Or at least curious enough to stick my nose out of my hole a bit," she added idly.

"That's all you'd need, really," offered Bianca. "It'd be easier to find her."

"Yeah, but..." I fidgeted in my chair.

"Oh, Nico, don't be a wuss," said my sister.

"Wuss?" I repeated coldly.

"Just 'cause you don't want to go see your girlfriend—"

"Whoa, hold up." I held up my hands. "She is _not_ my girlfriend."

"Of course she's not," said Rozzie soothingly, patting my shoulder.

"It just sounds like a stupid plan," I told them.

"It's better than running around like dogs chasing your tails," said my traitor of a sister.

"Not by much."

"But if it's a chance to get this stupid quest done with—"

"She won't last down here," I forced out.

"None of us do," said Rozzie flatly.

"And if Karson is coming, then Ella is coming, too, and she's just...just..."

"Ridiculous?" offered Bianca.

"Yes! Ridiculous!"

Rozzie, who had never met nor heard about Ella in any great depth, pursed her lips. "You were with her for months. I'm sure a few days won't hurt."

"But—"

"Besides, you said that Ella was pretty strong. It might be useful."

"No."

"Yes." Rozzie nodded firmly. "That's what we're going to do. Go get your stuff." She stood up from the table.

"How come she's the leader all of a sudden?" I demanded hotly as she marched out the door.

"You know why she's doing this, don't you?" asked Bianca. "She's worried."

"About what? We're going to find that woman either way! We have to."

"Not about finding that stupid lyre," scolded Bianca. "About you."

I blinked at her.

"After you came back to camp, you've been moody and foul. She's told me all about it."

"Of course she did," I said, tense with anger.

"And ever since you've come here, I've seen it myself," she said sternly. "And it's just been getting worse as time goes on."

I crossed my arms and didn't reply.

"Whether this plan works or not, it will only do you some good."

Then Rozzie came back in, carrying both my bag and her own. She tossed mine in the chair beside me.

I looked at her. "You went into my room."

She just shrugged. "Yep. I figured you'd be in here stalling. So I just decided to help you out a bit."

"How'd you do that so fast?" asked Bianca.

She wiggled her fingers. "Magic."

"Of course."

"Let's go," I said sourly, slinging the bag over my shoulder. We'd traveled pretty light, but I still felt heavy as I walked out of the room.

"Wouldn't shadow traveling be easier?" my sister reminded us innocently from where she saw at the table.

Rozzie grinned.

"I hate you all," I scowled.

"Hate is a strong word," she said mockingly.

"She isn't going to take my random reappearance very well," I told her, grabbing onto her wrist so she didn't get left behind.

"Nonsense." She flapped her free hand before taking a better grip of her bag. "It'll be fine."

We'll skip the part where Karson shot me and just go right the _I told you so._

**AND...done!**

**In case you didn't notice, this chapter and the last chapter happened around the same time and ended at the same point. Just so no one is more confused then necessary. **

**So, what do you think of Rozzie? My first new character in what I'm sure will be a very long list of new characters this story. **

**I know.**

**I have a problem.**


	4. Heartless Creatures

**I don't know when I'll be posting this. But, as I am writing this, it is the 16****th****, and school starts tomorrow. By the time this is up, I'll probably have something more interesting to say. I'll put that at the bottom. Like a before and after.**

_**Karson Maverick, daughter of Apollo**_

I may or may not have been emotionally comprised.

All right, so, maybe it wasn't okay for me to shoot Nico di Angelo. But he's a butt. And he was much too far away for any other kind of physical damage.

And, really, if he didn't want me to shoot him, he should have waited to come back after _months_ when I didn't have a bow in my hand.

I mean, geez. That was just poor planning.

Also, I don't care what Ella tells you. I did _not_ shoot him because there was a girl with him. I did NOT. He can do whatever the heck he wants.

As long as I get to shoot him when he does it.

Seriously. He just disappears without a word to any of us. Just poofs off the face of the freakin' earth. No Iris Messages. No nothing. We could all be dead by now, for all he knew. And he has the nerve to just pop up out of nowhere with some random girl that none of us know?

Uh, no. Not okay.

It was weird running through the woods without shoes on. And in a bathing suit. And dripping wet.

It's not something that I would readily recommend.

So, since I was tired and angry and barefoot and sulky and also slightly lazy, I just sat on a stump of what had once been a gigantic tree in the middle of nowhere. And I sat and wallowed and felt pathetic and had a great time. #sarcasm

I was there for about five or six minutes when I heard the crunch of leaves under someone's feet.

"Go away," I snarled at whoever it was. I pulled my knees up to my chest and covered my ears up with my hands. "I don't want to talk about me feelings or anything. So leave me alone."

"You know," said Ella, ignoring me cheerfully. "Shooting your soulmate may not be the best way to rekindle a relationship."

I scowled at her. "He's not my soulmate."

"Beg to differ!" she squealed, sitting down on the grass beside me.

"Differ all you want," I sighed agitatedly.

Ella looked at me with big eyes and whistled. "Wow. Not even an adequate comeback. You must be really messed up."

I said nothing.

"You know what I find helps me when I'm upset?"

"You're never upset."

"I sing Disney songs."

"Oh, gods, no."

"_Hakuna matata, what a wonderful phrase!_

_Hakuna matata, ain't no passin' craze!_

_It means no worries, for the rest of days!_

_It's our problem free philosophy!"_

Suddenly she stopped. She did a roll on the ground and came up in front of me, sitting back on her knees and looking up at me, wide-eyed. She was still wet from the lake, and bits of leaf and clumps of dirt stuck to her pale skin like Dalmatian spots. "Your lack of reaction is telling me that you're brain is not functioning properly."

I just looked at her.

Ella pulled on my hand, standing up. "Oh, come on, Gloomy Gus. We have to go meet your new house mate!"

My shock was the only reason she was able to pull me to my feet so easily. "What do you mean, new house mate?"

"Well, silly," she started, doing a little turn on the forest floor. "Nico is already sharing a room with Nathan. Don't you think it's a little much to ask us to keep them both?" Her flip flops squeaked as she walked.

I stopped dead in my tracks. "You mean you want me to let her into my house?" I asked incredulously.

"Basically? Yes!" And then she did a cartwheel, flinging dirt and sand everywhere.  
>"No."<p>

"Oh, why not? Are you worried she's a serial killer? Or do you think she's going to eat all of your tacos?" She gasped. "Oh, the horror!"

"I don't stock-pile taco ingredients like you do."

"That's right," Ella remembered suddenly, snapping her fingers. "The taco stock-piling is a trait for only amazing people, i.e. me."

"I don't even know her name," I said. I knew that if I let Ella get off topic, her ADHD would take control of everything and she'd talk about her pantry full of emergency taco supplies all the way to freakin' China.

"It's Rozzie," she said straight away. "Rozzie Hawthorne." She was grinning infuriatingly, like she knows something that you don't. But she'd stopped too, and stood facing me in the middle of the woods.

"She looked like a butt."

"Karson, you _are_ a butt."

"Geez, Ella!" I yell. "You find me depressed on a stump and five minutes later you're insulting me!"

Ella put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're not crying anymore, are you?"

Unconsciously, I held a hand up to my face. My cheeks were wet and slightly muddy, and my eyes felt puffy. "I was crying?"

"It's okay, I understand," she said, smiling. "You were worried about hurting my feelings when you ran off like that. But no worries! All is forgiven."

All is forgiven? Maybe on your end, Ella. But never on mine.

"Besides," she started again. "Crying makes you feel better."

"Oh, what would you know about that?" I snapped.

Ella stopped and pondered that for a second. She smiled at me, beaming. "I know nothing about that. After all, I am a heartless creature."

And then she turn turned and made her way back to the others, leaving me to think about what she'd said, and drown in the thought of having _Rozzie Hawthorne_ in my own friggin' house.

* * *

><p>Rozzie was sitting down on the end of the truck when we got there. Nico was sitting sullenly next to her as Avalee looked at the shot in his shoulder. It wasn't deep, I knew that much. The new girl handed Avalee whatever she needed.<p>

She was short. I could tell that even when she was sitting down. Not my kind of short. The girl was 5'2 at the most. She was broad shouldered and muscular. Her face wasn't striking, but she was pretty. She was dressed too well for hiking in the woods or fighting monsters, like she'd come from a party. Her skirt had Nico's blood on it.

Her eyes were strange. Gray, blue, green, hazel, and brown all at once. Her hair had been in a high ponytail before, but was now hanging down, and nearly reached the middle of her back. It was chestnut brown, the kind that turns honey colored when it's been in the sun too long.

Rozzie looked away from Nico's arm to me. Or, to us, since Ella was with me. Ella waved and dragged me over.

She looked sick close up. Her skin was drawn and sickly pale. She was too thin. "Hello," she said uneasily.

"Why, hello, Rozzie," Ella answered enthusiastically. "This is Karson."

She smiled weakly. I scowled.

"She's going to let you borrow the guest room in her house!" Ella continued with a little hop and a clap.

"Unfortunately, my first impression of you is a little sullied." She didn't say accusingly, or in any way unkindly, but it still made me want to punch her in her weird multi-colored eye. "He warned me, though. So I suppose it was my fault."

I could feel my face redden. "Warned you, did he?" I demanded, shifting my glare from her to him.

He met my gaze evenly, and sooner than I thought I got uncomfortable and had to look back at Rozzie to keep my voice from wavering.

She tucked her long hair behind her ear. "I hope I won't be too much of a burden," she said politely.

I saw Nico roll his eyes. He looked at Avalee, who was securing a bandage. "She's polite now. But just you wait."

Avalee's blue eyes got very wide, and as she tied the bandage tight she smiled. "I like having you back. I wish you hadn't had to leave." She looked sadly down at her knees before patting him lightly on the shoulder. "No choice, no choice," she said softly.

Alan popped up out of nowhere and tugged on her arm. "Avalee."

Suddenly her eyes brightened, and she looked like a normal little kid again. "Right." She looked at Nico. "Sorry. No spoilers." And then she hopped off the truck and walked over to where Nathan was waiting with extra clothes fro them.

Rozzie looked at them thoughtfully. "They are not normal, I assume?"

I opened my mouth to make a scathing retort, but the look of sadness on Nico's face made my voice fade into a useless rasp. I looked away.

"No," answered Ella, breaking the silence, only to have another follow as she smiled vacantly. If Nico's new friend expected any elaboration, she would be waiting a long time.

But she just ran a hand threw her hair and said, "You are not normal, either."

"Nope."

Rozzie smiled. "Thought not." She looked at me. "Daughter of Apollo?"

I frowned at her and stayed silent. Nico fidgeted slightly beside her, but she didn't seem to mind. "Nice shot," she said.

Both Nico and myself reddened. After a moment, she blushed, too. "Oh! Sorry. I meant at the hellhound."

Ella stood there, happily enjoying our discomfort in yet another awkward silence, before granting us mercy and chiming in, "You're not a bad shot yourself."

Rozzie looked down at the knife strapped in its holder to her belt. "I'm better at close range," she admitted, fingering the hilt. I knew that she had at least one more, maybe hidden in her clothes. I wondered vaguely exactly how many she had. Then I remembered that I hated her, and was not allowed to think about her in anything but a negative manner.

Nathan walked over, carrying a cleanly clothed Avalee on his shoulder and holding Alan's hand. "Ready to go? Where's David?"

"Here!" he called, on the other side of the car. One of the tires had been slashed by the hellhounds. David had just finished changing it. "We're all set."

Nathan smiled and set Avalee down carefully. "Then it's time to cut our day of fun in the sun short, is it not?" He twirled the car keys around his finger and whistled something that I'd heard before but couldn't quite place. But I would bet five bucks it was a Disney song. He climbed into the drivers seat, and the twins hopped in behind him. The rest of us decided to be illegal and jumped in the trunk bed.

David and Ella were the only ones capable of having any sort of conversation on the way back. Ella because, well, she was Ella, and David because the awkwardness was too overwhelming for him, and he filled it with nervous chatter that Ella was only too happy to encourage.

Nico, Rozzie, and I were depressingly silent. Nico kept looking off in the distance, almost refusing to make any contact with anyone. I was seething quietly. Rozzie seemed deep in thought, biting her lip. Her long hair was too wild in the wind, so she sat braiding it tightly, running her fingers through knots absently.

Nathan stopped at David's house first, and he jumped off with a cheerful wave before escaping into the comfort of his welcoming house. Ella was left to literally have a conversation with herself. Nico and I were used to it and effectively ignored her, which she almost didn't seem to notice. Rozzie merely glanced over when Ella said something particularly crazy and then returned to her own world.

I watched her, probably for a creepy amount of time. There were so many things that I could grow to hate about her. The thought was promising.

Luckily, our town isn't big. Everything is five-ten minutes away.

My house is the opposite of the Grace's. Theirs is large, old, and cozy. Ours is tall, modern, and everything is sterile white and sterling silver. There is no forest in the backyard. Just a swing set for my brother that's been slightly worn out. Not only that, but the adult factor is also different.

Mr. Grace is almost never home, because they can look after themselves. When he is, he's laid-back, and cooks like an angel.

My mother is always home. She's a wedding planner, the best one in the district, but most of her work she does in her study. When she's out of her study, she cleans.

Rozzie had her backpack slung over one shoulder easily, and looked at the slightly pathetic flower box under the window with a well-concealed grimace. Unfortunately, she was dealing with an expert in all things pessimistic. I didn't care that she had tried to conceal. I only cared that it was there. And so my mood deteriorated.

"Dilly, I'm home," I called.

My ten-year-old half-brother poked his head out of the kitchen entrance. "Don't call me Dilly."

"I'll stop calling you Dilly when you get taller than me." I ruffled his hair, perhaps with a bit more strength than needed.

Mom was at the sink, cleaning dishes by hand. Not only was she a clean-freak, she also had a severe distrust of kitchen cleaning appliances. "You've been out for a while. I hope you're not too dirty." She didn't look up when she spoke.

I looked down at my knees, which were nearly black with mud and sand, and felt a grim sort of satisfaction.

The silence made her look up. She looked at me. She looked behind me. Her eyes narrowed. Rozzie shifted uncomfortably.

"I see we have company," she said, her voice disturbingly even. I watched as she took in Rozzie's bag with a disapproving eye. "You didn't say anything about that this morning."

Personally, I was feeling just angry enough to ignore her and make her as angry as I was. Rozzie saved me from my own-self destruction.

She took a step forward and held out a surprisingly clean hand. "I'm sorry, I'll take the blame for that. My friend and I dropped in without much warning, and there was no time to make any living arrangements. You're daughter was very kind to offer." Even though I didn't offer. Her voice was suddenly crisp, and a lot more formal. Then again, I'd shot someone right in front of her, so I had no call for formality.

My mother shook her hand warily.

"Luckily, I'll only impose on your hospitality for a short time. At least, that's the plan. We'll try to keep our stay as short as possible." She smiled and bent her head to the side. Her face was transformed into something I had a feeling my mom wanted to see. "I'm Rosalyn. Most people call me Roz or Rozzie, but really, anything is fine."

Gods, she was probably the most socially acceptable demi-god I've ever met.

Dilly looked at her morosely. "Are you one of them?"

"Hmm?" asked Rozzie, confused, like she hadn't quite heard.

"Are you like my daughter?" mom clarified evenly.

She blinked once or twice, but Rozzie regained her composure quickly. "If you're asking me whether I am a half-blood or not, I'm afraid the answer is an undeniable yes," she said, somehow managing to sound apologetic. "But I'm almost certain your daughter and I are very different."

I didn't feel angry then. The grips of sadness overrode the fury. I didn't know what these two were in town for. But I knew that whatever t was, I would be glad when it was over. My heart isn't a strong thing. It can't handle all the emotions. I thought back to what Ella had said earlier.

Maybe I was a heartless creature, too.

**Yay! Karson-anger! It's really hard to make people moody. It just seems so...bleh. But, luckily for you beautiful readers, I ALREADY have chapter five written! Mostly. It just needs some (read "a lot of") editing. So it will be up soon.**

**Also, my choir is doing a Renaissance Festival, and I get to be a nymph. :) I'm looking forward to all of my choir directors awful puns in the script. He seems to enjoy those.**

**And I'm super duper sure you guys are going to like the next chapter...BEWARE OF THE PLOT TWIST.**


	5. It's a Miserable Life

**And thus, I return to being a liar.**

**My humble apologies for being a terrible person. Unfortunately, I have been ridiculously busy since I last updated. Luckily I bring with me someone I think you've all be missing, and present you with some interesting, suspense-inducing plot twists. At least, I tried. **

**And so, without further ado, please enjoy the return of some entertaining characters. :)  
><strong>

Cass was very confused.

Not necessarily an "I don't what to do" kind of confused. But mostly, it was an "I don't know freaking _anything_" kind of confused. Of course, the other kind of confused was included in that. And that was what led to her almost literally running in circles trying to figure out what she was going to do.

See, Cass was in an interesting situation. She had no idea who she was.

Being confused was bad enough. But looking back and seeing only shifting images of shadows, just too far away to latch on to, as opposed to memories not only made her anxious but also nearly drove her to madness. She felt like if she could only reach a little further, the answers would be there. She tried when she was eating. She tried when she was running. She tried when she was doing nothing in particular. Which was depressingly often.

And, even worse, when she slept, she was haunted by nightmares. A man dressed like a Joker from a card face, dancing in front of her, memories swirling in his hands as she stood, heavy, chained to the floor, the metal links clinking when she struggled to move under their weight. He smiled, his painted face splitting to reveal wicked, pointed teeth, and Cass was dragged down through the floorboards, back into the darkness, sinking as the chains pulled her down.

She always woke, sticky with sweat, chilled to the bone, legs tangled in the blankets she'd managed to find (read "steal"). Today was no different.

She pushed her damp bangs off of her forehead. The tips clung to her skin. She threw the blankets off, ridiculously hot and unnervingly cold at the same time. She rolled her neck, fingers twisting in her dark hair that she knew was an absolute mess.

Sitting up, Cass inspected where she'd ended up the night before. She wasn't too far from the main city, hidden behind a wall of trees in a park that she'd already forgotten the name of. She was in very deep, not wanting to be found. She flicked a leaf off of her t-shirt and stood, shaking off dirt and twigs and trying to comb her hair with her fingers in what she knew was, and forever would remain, a lost battle.

Tucking the blankets back into the backpack she'd procured, Cass thought about the past few days. She'd woken up in a different state, alone, two days before, propped up against a building in an alleyway, a stray cat eating out of an old tuna can beside her. Even then, she hadn't remembered a thing about anything. There were no memories. No story-telling scars. No small bits of information that she could latch onto.

Lately, another worry had set in. What if there wasn't anything to remember? Without memories, how could she know she had existed before then? Maybe, she'd just fallen right out of the sky, and the only witness was a feral cat and a couple of mice. How could she know?

Oh, that's right. She couldn't. No matter how much will power she put into it, her past, if she had one, remained unnervingly blank.

Just thinking about it, Cass spat on the ground bitterly.

She knew her name. She even knew about the gods. But about herself, she knew nothing. She didn't know if she was ruthless or merciful. Was she overly righteous? Was she stubborn, laid-back, cheerful, pessimistic? What did she like to do/read/watch/listen to? None of these things she knew. She didn't even know what to think about her situation, because she didn't know how she thought.

Yeah, she knew her name. But what use was that when she didn't even know who the heck she was?

None at all.

Cass started walking back towards where she knew the park to be. Her first day awake, she realized that she should definitely not use the computer. A googling of her name had given her next to no information and a monster attack from something hairy with fangs. She rolled her shoulder, feeling the clean, white bandage moving under her clothes. She had to assume that phones did that, too, so the cell phone she'd found in her pocket had remained virtually untouched. She had taken the time to check the date when she woke up, the time every now and then, and her list of contacts.

Contacts that she apparently did not have. There was no information on her phone. No contacts. No recent calls. No data whatsoever. She wasn't sure if that was the work of whatever (or whoever) had given her severe amnesia, or that she was some kind of anti-socialist who had no friends. Option one seemed more likely, but she didn't have quite enough confidence in her social skills to throw out the other one.

She had thought, when first waking up, that she had hit her head and forgotten everything. But she had no bumps or pains or bruises. Even though she knew that she'd probably been attacked by monsters before, her skins was unnaturally smooth, like someone had taken a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to her old scars. And she'd read a lot about amnesia in the past couple of days. What she _did_ remember seemed too specific.

This was what was going through her mind when she ran into the tree.

She rubbed her forehead with a grimace, ignoring the squirrel making what she was sure was a very rude gesture in Small Mammal. She did not ignore the laugh she heard coming from above her.

She whipped around, her neck crackling like popcorn and head pounding from the impact. She felt dizzy. It was way too early for this, in her opinion.

Feet thumped on tree bark. There was a girl sitting in the tree above, a little younger than Cass, wrinkling her nose in mirth, legs swinging back and forth rhythmically. She was wearing a black tank top, a fluffy dark blue skirt above the knee, and black leggings. Silver bracelets jingled on her arm. She looked like she should be going on a date, not climbing a tree. Her white skin stood out against her dark clothes like snow against ink. Her ridiculously long black hair was wavy and past the middle of her back, half of it piled on top of her head. But it was her eyes that were weird. There were no whites. Everything was black.

Cass looked at her, tensing her shoulders and crouching low at the same time. Ready. Waiting.

The girl raised her eyebrows, like she was surprised, but it was hard to read eyes that were so alien. "You're quick. I supposed your body still remembers," she said idly, vaguely cheerful. Her feet still tapped on the wood.

"Do I..." Cass started warily, straightening slightly. "Do I know you?"

She cocked her head to the side. "I don't know. Do you?" She smiled puzzlingly.

Cass blinked, perplexed. She had a bizarre image of herself in a pinafore, talking to a creepy Cheshire Cat in a tree, stuck in a world she didn't know a thing about.

Then she scowled. She could remember creepy cartoons, and not anything that mattered?

Peachy.

"Who are you?" she demanded testily.

The girl clicked her tongue. "That's no way to talk to your elders."

Elder. "You're a god."

The corners of her strange eyes crinkled when she smiled. "Hmm. Am I?" She blinked innocently. "I am not a god, nor a titan. I predate the gods. There are few titans who could claim to be older than I."

And, big surprise, Cass was confused.

"For the purpose of this conversation," the girl continued, "let's just say I'm a god."

"Okay," the brunette agreed uncertainly.

"But, since technically I'm not a god, I can talk to you." The not-god grinned. "Isn't that nice?"

On the ground, Cass knit her eyebrows.

"Gods have rules," explained the other girl easily. "Our...interference is limited, particularly when it comes to our children. The cosmos apparently doesn't like it when we meddle." She smiled childishly. "But I'm a meddler at heart."

"Who are you again?"

"Someone important," she answered cryptically. "Zeus himself is in awe of me. Call me Nyx."

"Oh." Suddenly, Cassandra Hart felt very small.

"But, still not so important that I can enter the lives of my children whenever I wish, which is why I'm here."

It was weird, thinking that this weird girl had children. She looked 15, possibly 16. But gods, even non-gods, can look however they want. Then she had a bad thought. "Am...I your kid?"

Her tree-bound companion laughed. "No, dear. My kids are much more adorable than you." She grinned.

Cass knot her eyebrows. "Then..." she paused. "What do I have to do with your kids?"

The girl in the tree clucked her tongue again. "Secret."

Her heart filled with anger. "Well, then what do you need me for!"

"So rude," was the easy reply. She flapped her hand. The behavior reminded Cass of something, maybe someone, but when she tried to grasp at the memory it slipped through her fingers and back into the darkness. The other girl continued like Cass's outburst hadn't happened. "I can't help too much. But I'll give you a gift."

Shoulders tensed up again. Cass took a step back. "And in return?" she demanded.

Nyx looked at her closely, cocking her head to the side and smiling innocently. "Perhaps later you'll be able to make it up to me."

There's no such thing as a free lunch. "I don't want your gift."

Black eyebrows shot up. "I don't care."

Cass opened her mouth to quip, but nothing came out.

The not-god's black eyes blazed with something that Cass couldn't place. "You hurt my family, dear. You're lucky I'm trying to help you at all. And if, in return, I need a little insurance for the future, I don't think that's so bad. And believe me, no one will help you. Not one. At least, not for a while. I'm the only one who sees any use for you, at the moment."

"At the moment..." the girl repeated.

Nyx blinked tiredly, rolled her eyes, and flapped her hand again. She brushed through her hair absently with her fingers. "They are all helplessly nearsighted. They haven't seen what's coming. But they can't fail to notice it for much longer. Then they will all try to use you. Every single one of them."

She had nothing to say in reply to that.

"But don't let them," the girl continued. "The future depends on what you all choose. And if you get yourself together, I can trust the lot of you far more than any god. When the choice comes, it'd better be your own." She blinked again. "That wasn't the gift though. That was for free."

Cass had goosebumps. For a second, she had no trouble believing this girl was powerful enough to have the respect of even the king of the gods. "What is your gift?" she said.

Up in the tree, Nyx stood up on her branch. "The best kind of gift. And the one that you need most."

A shower was the first thing that came to mind. "Some sort of weapon?"

The not-god shook her head. "Information."

"I don't understand."

"Of course you don't." Hugging the tree with one arm and grinning, she held up three fingers. "I'll answer three questions. At this stage, that's the most I can do. Although there are some questions I can't answer."

Cass had no problem thinking of the first thing she'd like to know. "Why don't I remember anything?"

Nyx's mouth twitched upward. "You gave them away. The memories. As a price."

"A price." she blinked. "I gave them away."

"Yes."

"What was I paying for?"

Nyx hopped down to the ground. "Secret."

Cass wondered if that was one of her three questions. "Who did I give them to?"

"Secret."

She knit her eyebrows. "Can I get them back?"

Looking at her sideways, Nyx asked, "Are you sure you want them back?"

"I'd rather have the truth than a guilt-free conscience."

"Then, yes. You can get them back."

"How?"

"Secret."

Cass was getting a headache. "Where can I go to get more answers?" she asked, rubbing her temples.

To that, the not-god grinned. "Good girl."

Then Nyx disappeared.

Once again, she was confused. Cass leaned back against the tree the mind-boggling deity had stood in. Her injured shoulder jostled. Then she saw it.

There was a small navy blue box at her feet. It was just big enough to fit in her palm, ornamented with ornate silver designed to look lace, and bits of obsidian decorated the box like black stars. She opened it. It was a compass. The silver needle quivered in a direction that Cass was sure was not north.

She turned. The needle moved.

She blinked at it, wondering what it was for. Then she smiled. What do you do with a compass? She asked herself. "You follow it, you idiot," she chided herself aloud. Then she heaved her backpack further up on her uninjured shoulder and headed off.

* * *

><p>Following a compass is hard work. It took Cass a long time to figure out how it worked. The compass worked like a tour guide. It would lead her to one spot, and once she got there, it would lead her to the next. For example, the first time, it led her to a train station. Then she sat there for a while trying to figure out what train to take, before settling on the one that felt right.<p>

Apparently, she had chosen the right way. After the train ride, she traveled on foot for two days. She was taken to grocery stores, under bridges, bus stops. None of them had any correlation to each other except for the fact that they were all in the same general direction.

And then Cass, poor, dirty, in-desperate-need-or-a-shower Cass, was in a very nice suburban community.

She walked down the street stiffly, looking at the people out on their perfectly manicured lawns. They watched her shrewdly, making faces at each other like she couldn't see them.

She wanted to scream at them. "You think I don't know that I look like the wrong side of a horse? Just because you live in a fancy house doesn't mean you're allowed to be rude!"

But she didn't.

Then came the moment Cass had been literally dreading. Suddenly, the quivering needle took a sharp left, pointing at some poor persons bright red door. She paused. She walked around the house. No matter where she moved, it pointed to that stupid door.

Cass sighed in defeat and walked up the steps, ringing the doorbell awkwardly with her free hand. She hoped vaguely that these people would be more forgiving of her appearance than the rest of the neighborhood.

She heard footsteps. A pause. The latch of the door clicked, and it opened slowly, the hinges getting quite enough time to squeak morosely.

There was another girl standing in the doorway, maybe a bit younger but a heck of a lot cleaner. Her hair was dark and thick, braided in pigtails, her skin the color of chocolate, and her eyes were wide and mischievous, although they were boarder line impressed as they looked at Cass. Her feet were bare.

Cass took a step back. If someone was impressed with her, particularly at that moment, something was wrong.

But then the girl said something that made Cass bristle with alarm. "Ah!" she said cheerfully. "Cassie Hart, back from the dead once again."

"What?" was the dull reply.

The girl squinted at her, taking a step closer. Cass took a step back. "Who are you?" she asked, looking Cass up and down.

It was a strange question. The older girl had thought this strange person already knew the answer to it. "I thought you might be able to tell me."

"You don't remember." It wasn't a question.

"No." Cass looked at her uncertainly. "Um...do I know you?"

"I believe introductions are in order." She tugged on a pigtail, grinning. "I'm Lora. And it's delightful, truly, to be reunited with my beloved partner. Come in. Have a seat. Eat a crepe." Her smile turned into something wicked. "I'll be happy to tell you all about your miserable life."

**That's a wrap! What'd you guys think? Any theories? Let me know! Because I decide to be a good person again, it's a "secret." :)  
><strong>


	6. The Hazards of Fathers and the Woods

**Sorry, ****I ****haven****'****t**** updated ****in**** so ****long.**** Writer****'****s ****block.**

**Please ****take**** this ****ridiculously ****long ****chapter**** (nearly**** 14**** pages) ****as ****penance,**** and**** I**** threw ****in ****a ****little ****gift**** at**** the ****end.**** :)**

_**Rozzie **__**Hawthorne, **__**daughter**__** of**__** Persephone**_

I looked at myself in the mirror. Turned my face to the right. To the left. Up. Down. Lights on. Lights off.

I'd been doing that a lot lately. It's not fun.

It wasn't until I had been able to rest at Karson's that I had really noticed how close I was to dying. I'd lost weight. My muscles were weak. My skin had been dry and rough, not just pale, but gray, like death. The black circles beneath my eyes were like bruises against my weakened complexion. My hair was literally falling out, although whether that was the almost-dead part or the fact that I had to put up with volatile Nico for so long was a mystery.

After the first night of rest up in the world of the living, I'd realized just how tired my body had been, trying to convince itself that it could keep going. And maybe it could have. But I wasn't going to complain for the reprieve.

Someone knocked on the door of my make-shift bedroom. "Come in!" I called, making my hair fall over my face just enough so that no one would notice the weight I'd lost. I was getting it back at an almost unhealthy rate, but still.

What Nico doesn't know won't hurt him.

Karson was out shopping for school clothes with her mother in a town about an hour away, so I wasn't too surprised when it was Dillon who opened the door to the guest bedroom, albeit meekly.

"There's someone at the door," he said, not meeting my eyes.

"Um..." I wasn't really sure what he wanted, being almost positive it wasn't for me.

"I'm not allowed to answer the door for strangers."

"Do you not know who it is?"

"No, I didn't ask."

"Why not?"

He looked at me uncertainly. "Well, then they'd know there was someone in the house. What if they were a kidnapper?"

The kid makes a point.

I ran a hand through my hair and walked out into the hallway. "Gotcha. Good job, being careful."

Dillon looked at his shoes again. "We're always careful." Then he raced off down to his spot at the kitchen table, to finish reading the summer book he'd been assigned.

I suppose, in a family with a demi-god, you'd have to be careful. Almost to the point of paranoia. With all due respect, Karson's mother would be the one to cross that line. She cleans like she thinks the dirt will join together in mutiny and take a tyrannical seat of power.

I tapped one of the knives I had hidden under my clothes, the one under my armpit, hidden by my tie-dyed t-shirt. I remember the knives that were in the kitchen, lying on the counter until I got around to cleaning them. Did I need them?

Maybe paranoia was in the water or something.

It turns out that I didn't have to worry. In fact, I didn't even have to bother asking who was on the other side of the door at all. The loud, elevator-esque humming of a Disney song kind of gave it away. I opened the door, confused. "Ella?"

"Ella!" she said, jumping up a little and flinging her arms in the air, interrupting the chorus of "Circle of Life." She wore pajama pants, a black tank top, and a black jacket that might have been her brother's, because it was much too big for her. All in all, she looked way too warm for the summer weather.

"Karson's not here?" I tried, sidestepping out of the doorway to avoid Ella as she walked into the house. She waved to Dillon from the bathroom.

"Doesn't matter," she said cheerfully, kicking off her flip flops. "I'm sick," she then said, like she was introducing herself. "I thought I'd come and relax, drink some tea, eat a cupcake, play some FIFA." Her hair was in a messy ponytail that bounced along with her.

I closed the door, still confused. "And you're _here_, specifically, because...?"

"Because I hear this little devil—" (at this point she ruffled Dillon's hair; he didn't react at all.) –"got FIFA 12." She patted him on the head and smoothed down the hair she misplaced. "Come on! Hook me up."

He looked up at her, blushing slightly, and slid out of his chair to make his way to the cabinet beneath the television, where he fished around for a moment before bringing out the game.

"No offense, but you don't act like your sick?" When I got confused, everything I say comes out like a question, even when it's just a regular old statement. It drove my dad nuts.

I would be asking a lot of question/statements around the Graces.

Ella, who had bent over to push the game into the console, straightened, pushing her bangs out of her eyes, and looked at me. Her skin was a little gray, and her eyes a little dull, but she still looked like she was ready to wrestle an elephant over a twinkie. Then she smiled, head cocked to the side, curls bouncing and said, "Well, us sick people have to stick together, no?"

"I'm not sick?"

"You're not?" she asked innocently. "Hm." She reached out, quick as lightning, and grabbed my face, squeezing my cheeks together so that I felt like a ridiculous chipmunk. She twisted my face this way and that, peering at me with her dark eyes. Her eyes trailed down to my neck, and she reached out with her other hand to touch my shoulder.

I ripped my face away, stumbling back a bit, almost tripping over Dillon, who I'd forgotten was there, and slamming against the kitchen counter.

"The Underworld grips it's victims tight," she said cheerfully, and I rubbed my cheeks where her hand had been. But I could tell she knew there was more.

"Who said I was in the Underworld?" I rubbed my shoulder, my secret covered by tie-dyed cotton

"Common sense, love," she said, skipping with too much enthusiasm into the kitchen. I followed her warily. She paused, coming to an abrupt halt like she had remembered something, and continued, "And also Alan. Which is good enough for me."

Ella then proceeded to raid the pantry. She pulled out a bagel and looked at me while she shoved it into the toaster. I reached over to the daggers I had on the counter, pulling a rag out of my pocket.

Hopping up to sit on the tabletop, I rhythmically moved up the blade of one, cleaning off monster dust and blood, the second of which most likely my own.

She watched me for a while, humming while her bagel toasted in the toaster. "You're like David."

"What?" I barely looked up.

"Too normal. Too, too normal," she sang. I don't know if that's a real song, or she just made it up. She did a little dance.

I looked at her incredulously. "So you say as you watch me clean monster guts off of my cutlery."

"You have to match the strange, Miss Hawthorne! Match the strange of the Grace family! Match the strange of the brooding di Angelo!" She said it like a war cry. "But I'm sure you're used to the di Angelo."

There was a very awkward silence while I tried to figure out what to say next. Nothing strange or witty popped into my head. And, while I was used to the "brooding di Angelo", Ella was on the complete other side of the spectrum. So I just went into the living room and left her to toast her bagel in peace.

The rest of the day passed quietly (for me). Ella spent it screaming obscenities at the television screen, shouting for one ridiculously-named soccer player to do better or she would cut off his corndog supply for the month ("Come _on_, Fat Lucas II!"). Dillon just kind of sat at the kitchen table and drew while I ran around, doing this and that to ignore the fact that I was exhausted.

Nothing interesting happened until the afternoon. And when I say interesting, make no mistake. I mean awful.

The phone rang innocently. I will never trust a phone again.

I felt weird answering someone else's phone. Now, I kind of wish I'd let it ring and made Nico run all the way over here to tell me. It would have given me more time to not freak out.

"Hello?"

"Rozzie?" Nico huffed into the receiver.

"Yup. Karson isn't here."

Ella popped her head up from the couch, where she had been dominating on FIFA for the past few hours. "Nico? Hi, Nico!" she shouts. Dillon pops his head up from the table. "Tell Nico I said hi!" she demanded.

"Ella says hi."

"I don't care about Ella!"

"Humph!" she said, and turned back to her game.

"Nico, what's wrong?" I asked, 'cause he sounded a little freaked out.

"Roz..." I could practically hear him closing his eyes on the other side, take a breath, and brace himself for my reaction.

In turn, I braced myself for his news. "Who died?"

"You're about to."

"What?"

"You're dad is here."

"WHAT!"

Nico dropped the phone on the other side. Ella dropped her controller. Dillon fell out of his chair.

I heard background noise for a minute while Nico collected the phone again. "He's sitting in his car on the street outside of the Grace's house!" I pictured Nico peaking discreetly through the window.

"Gods, no." I massaged my forehead. "I'm on my way."

* * *

><p>Ella ended up following me to her house as soon as we were sure that it was okay for Dillon to be home alone. The entire time she pestered me with questions and meaningless comments.<p>

"What's going on? Wow, you walk really fast for a short person. I was about to go to the FA cup, you know. So this had better be important. How do you feel about the pancake versus waffles debate?"

"Pancakes," I said dryly, almost to her house.

"Gasp!" Like, she literally said, "gasp," she didn't actually gasp. Which didn't really make any sense to me. "My therapist would look into your soul, see that you preferred pancakes, and diagnose you with some sort of terrible psychological disorder." She paused, thinking. "I'm more of a waffles person, myself."

I sighed. "I gathered."

"Well, aren't you a sharp one!" She grinned.

I just kind of looked at her flatly.

She just kept on grinning. Humming. Dancing. Skipping. Until we got to her house. She stopped in her tracks. She kept on smiling, but it fell a little and changed into something different. "Car," she said simply. There was a bright yellow car (I won't tell you any details, because I care next to nothing and don't know them). "Shall we investigate?" She stopped and looked at me knowingly. "But, then, I suppose you already know who it is."

When I didn't move, Ella hooked her arm with mine, like I was escorting her to a fancy party and we weren't dressed in t-shirts and pajama pants. "Let's investigate anyway."

It took a minute for my stunned brain to fully comprehend what she was doing as she led me towards the car. When it made it's sluggish way to my brain, I did my best to escape. I didn't not succeed.

Ella has the arms of Rambo.

We weren't very far away when someone got out of the car.

He was young, like, late thirties, and handsome, if you like swanky white guy.

Persephone sure did.

"Rosalyn!" he exclaimed, grinning with teeth even whiter than Ella's and a smile half as genuine but much less disconcerting, because I knew it so well. He ran a hand through his light brown hair, his expensive watch gleaming in the sun. "Who's this?" He nodded towards Ella, hand outstretched.

She took it. "My name is Elodie Grace!" she said happily. "Ella. This is my house. Which means that I should be asking who _you_ are, my snazzy young friend, not the other way around."

"Hasn't Rozzie told you?" he said, surprised, even when he knew that I didn't talk about him with anyone for fear of them running away in horror. "I'm her father."

"Ah." That's all she said.

For a second, I was worried I would be stuck in the awkward silence for the rest of my life.

"But what are you here for?" asked Ella, saving us all.

"Well, to talk to my daughter, of course." He grinned.

She raised an eyebrow. I stood stiff like a board next to her, my eyes on the ground, and very much not wanting to talk to him. "That's nice," she said, smiling. "Would you like to come in for some lemonade?" She motioned for him to follow her into the house.

I saw Nico, who had been watching out the window, his face pressed to the glass, duck back behind the curtain and pretend like he hadn't been. I pictured him looking over at Nathan, saying, "Her dad is big in the photography business. Which means two things: he's rich, and he's a jerk."

Avalee and Alan opened the door before we were even on the porch. Avalee blinked in the sunlight, her pale hair blinding, her blue eyes wide, her dress flouncy, trying to look as adorable as possible. She succeeded. Alan, too, was doing his best to look more like a six year old and not like...whatever he was.

Maybe that's just what it takes to hide how creepy they are.

"Rozzie!" Avalee yelped happily, bounding towards me like she was my best friend and catapulting herself into my arms. I did the best I could to do my part considering how unready I was.

She grinned to the others and laid her head on my shoulder, her mouth to my ear. "He's here to take you away," she whispered.

If I were unused to being freaked out, I would have dropped her.

"Don't let him," she insisted.

Ella and my dad were already in the house. Alan walked up to me.

"Yeah," he said. "She needs you."

"Who does?" I thought they meant Ella (who certainly did not need me) or maybe Karson (who only really needed an anger management therapist to stop her from shooting random people).

But Alan just shrugged. "Secret."

"What fun would it be if you knew all the rules?" Avalee squeaked.

I just blinked and said, "Gods, you are so much like your sister."

"Alan?" called Nathan from inside. "Come in, you're letting all the hot air in."

I shut the door as he walked out of the kitchen, looking rather like Mr. Mom, his glasses on, wiping his hands off with a kitchen towel. He stretched out his hand to Dad. "Hi. I'm Nathan."

Dad took it, and I could he was surprised by how strong his hands were, or maybe how rough. "Did Rozzie tell you where we were?"

"Yes, she did," he said, smiling as I scowled, because I didn't.

Nico knew that, if no one else did. He frowned.

But I think everyone else in the room realized it, too. Ella was on the verge of laughing, and Nathan had an ironic smile on his lips. Alan and Avalee probably knew because, as I was beginning to realize, they knew everything.

"Dad, I'm kind of busy right now," I whispered to him.

His face hidden from the other, his expression turned terrible. "I haven't heard from you in months." His voice was a hard whisper.

"I was busy then, too."

"Feel free to enlighten me."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nathan nod for Ella and the twins to follow him into the kitchen, and Nico, albeit reluctantly, followed.

"Discreet," dad commented dryly.

"Dad—" I started.

"Rosalyn!" he rounded on me. I winced. There was only so far they could recede into the kitchen without going through the walls. I could imagine them all unusually quiet as Ella made herself a taco. "Where have you been?"

"...Around."

"You ran away from home for months, and all you can tell me is that you've been _around_!"

I chose not to answer and get to the point I really cared about. "How'd you find me?"

"I have sources, Rosalyn."

"You mean you've had me followed." I knew how his world worked.

It's one of the reasons I left it.

"One of the best." He didn't even deny it. "Although you disappeared completely for a while. Please, tell me, how'd you manage that?"

"I have ways," I replied icily.

"I refuse to play this game," he snapped. "You're coming home."

"I refuse to come home. Does that suit you?" I reached over and held out the door for him. "Can you go now?"

"I won't take no for an answer, Rosalyn."

"No, you will. You'll leave."

"Rosalyn," he sighed, red-faced. "I'm your father."

I rolled my eyes. "And it's not very often that you admit to that. You didn't want me. Now, you don't have to have me and you follow me to the middle of nowhere and demand me to go." I threw my hands in the air. "Show some consistency, man!"

"Show some respect," Dad shouted. "Of course I want you."

"Do you realize how many interviews you've given when you don't even admit you have a daughter!"

"Of course, I do. I'm protecting you."

"No, you're protecting _you_, from the scandal." My face was red hot, I could feel it. "You're worried people will do the math, realize you had a daughter when you were 19 with a woman you couldn't charm into staying with you, and take away everything."

"I've worked for what I have! And what do you do?" He pointed at me accusingly. "You run here and there, doing whatever you want, getting kicked out schools, getting into fights, acting like you own the world." He grabbed my shoulders, and I winced. "Well, you know what? You don't. And you're coming home."

Silence.

I stepped away, shaking my head. "No, I refuse. I won't go. This is important."

"I'm your father. I decide what's important."

My hands were shaking. "This is bigger than me. Bigger than you, if you can wrap your huge head around it."

He shook his head. "You think that now, but it ten years, it'll just be a speck of dust."

I refrained from saying what came to mind. _In __ten__ years,_ I'll _be__ a __speck __of __dust._ I rubbed my shoulders. My secret. Death was more of a certainty than a probability.

Dad took a step towards me. "What is so important to you that you won't listen to your own father?"

"Since when have I ever listened to my own father?"

"Answer me." His brown eyes were nearly black with anger. His hand gripped my arm.

Grabbing his wrist, I looked him in the eye. "My life, my purpose, what I'm here for, is not to be packed away until you want me or paraded around like a horse. What I'm doing now matters."

"Prove it."  
>And I couldn't.<p>

It's not his fault. He really didn't know about Mom. If he did, he'd use it to boost himself and end up in an insane asylum. So never once in his life had he ever understood anything important.

It really isn't his fault.

But I couldn't forgive him.

"Rosalyn..." he said softly. He had won. He always does. I had nothing more to say.

Not that it mattered. I didn't need logic.

I was half-freakin'-god.

That didn't stop him from really frustrating me.

I stormed around him and made my way into the kitchen.

Ella was, indeed, eating a taco, but if I had thought they would all be sitting around in awkward silence I was wrong. Nathan was playing a card game with Alan, and Avalee was chatting with Nico about something. He stood up when I entered the room, face flushed. I ignored him and just walked out the back door into their backyard and continuing into the woods behind the Graces house.

The last thing I saw was Ella, her mouth full of taco, putting her hand on dad's shoulder and Nathan, hardly looking up from his hand of cards, saying, "Dude, I _really_ think you should leave."

* * *

><p>The woods were deep and thick, but not confusing. The first clearing I came was one that I recognized, not because I'd seen it, but because I'd heard of it.<p>

Trees, super tall and thick and leafy in the summer heat, with hideous, ridiculous gashes in them. Last winter, Nico had used this place to take out his frustration at being stuck in his quest. The one Chiron had given him.

The one we were trying to finish now.

This is also where he'd met Ella and Karson for the first time.

For that part of his life, this had been the place he needed to get everything to fall in place. Not for the part of his life that he had thought, but the part that led to Cassandra Hart's sister and the army of giants.

Maybe it could help me with this part, too.

Huffing and emotionally exhausted, I did little more than collapse in the middle of the circle of trees. I could picture Ella and Karson, nearly a year younger, discovering Nico where'd he hidden in his bush.

Deep breaths. In, out. In, out. In, in, in, in.

Something moved in the darkness. My hand immediately went to my side, where one of my knives were, and my mind almost as quickly thought, "monster."

Then a girl tumbled out of the trees.

Her hair was about one step away from dredlocks, curly and dirty and deep black and cut raggedly to her shoulders. She held a little box in her hand. Her face was scratched and her skin was pale. Her clothes were torn.

And her eyes looked very confused. "Um..."

"Who the Hades are you?"

"Uh..." her eyes flicked around, taking in the scratch marks on the trees. "I'm not entirely sure?"

Gods. What a day. "What's your name?"

"Cass."

My heart sped up. "Hart?"

Her eyes got a bit brighter. "Do you know who I am?"

I said something unintelligent like "Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Someone came towards me the house. If it was my dad, I swear—

Ella's face popped out through the trees. She saw the marks. "How nostalgic." She saw me. "I got rid of your dad, for now. You totally owe me." She saw Cass.

She blinked. "Huh..." she blinked again. "So you aren't dead." Her voice was light. I wondered if she was mad.

Didn't look like it.

"Do I know you?" Cass's eyes were dull.

I could see the gears working in Ella's head. Finally, she grinned and did a little twirl. "Goodness, Nathan is in for a heart attack."

**Yep. I'm awesome.**


	7. In Which There's a Lack of Heart Attacks

**I just want you guys to know, I'm getting slightly disappointed. Hardly any reviews! Reviews are helpful. Especially with boosting my ego and making me want to write more!**

**So REVIEW!**

**So I can feel better about myself. :)**

**Ella Grace, daughter of Nyx**

Getting rid of Rozzie's father was no easy task. He was just so angry the entire time.

"You, boy," he shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Nico as Nathan and I pulled at his shoulders, trying to hold him back. "This is your fault!"

Nico looked at him blankly. "Hmm?"

"She only got like this after she met you!" Mr. Hawthorne screamed. Then he went on this really long rant about how everything was Nico's fault, and how Nathan and I were just useless tools, and said something very mean about his daughter.

But I'm really lazy and don't want to type all of that.

Eventually, it turned from hilarious to headache-inducing, so I did what I do best.

I slapped him in the face.

"No more screaming!" I yelled. "You're ruining my _chi._"

He stared at me. "Your _what_?"

I looked back at him, wide-eyed. "Sir," I told him sincerely, "I think you're an angry moron and I don't want you in my house because your making it stink with your idiocy."

Nathan and I started pushing him towards the door. "I know, our awesome should be enough to cover up your anger," he said happily, "but, really, it's a lot of work to overpower both anger _and_ stupidity, and I don't want to corrupt the children with such things."

Alan and Avalee popped up out of nowhere and Avalee, still in her frufru dress, put her hands on her hips imperiously. "Rosalyn," she said loudly to her brother, "I'm your father. _I _decide what is important!"

He cowered at her feet. "Ah, the corruption!" he wailed before they both completely collapsed into giggles.

I knew I taught them well.

"So, as you can see, sir," Nathan started.

"We really don't like you," I finished for him, smiling. "And would very much appreciate it if you would go and leave us to take care of your charming daughter."

"Since that isn't something you seem to be capable of doing," my brother added absently.

Avalee opened the front door. "Byebye!" she said, waving happily.

"Y'all come back now, ya hear?" I shouted as I pushed him out. "Or, you know, you could just never set foot here again. Either works."

Nathan shut the door with a slam and looked at me, grinning. "Dad would have a conniption at our awful hospitality."

"Eh." I walked into the kitchen. "That guy would have given him a conniption first."

Nico was sitting dejectedly in his corner. "Rozzie's gonna be freaking out. She hates her father."

"Can't see why," I said happily. "He's so pleasant." I opened the back door and went into the yard, running towards the tree line. "I'm going to go find her."

"Yeah. All that anger exhausted me," Nathan agreed, collapsing onto a stool. Nico was banging his head on the table.

Don't know why.

I will admit, I was a little worried about Rozzie myself. It was a little sad when you liked your godly parent more than your mortal one. 'Cause the gods are all pretty useless in the parenting field.

You'd think that after so many years of having kid after kid they'd be a little better at it.

Also, I'm pretty sure something was wrong with Rozzie. Like, health-wise. And I don't just mean the after affects of coming from the Underworld. (I didn't even need Alan to tell me to figure it out. I mean, really. Nico being the son of Hades doesn't make it obvious at all! Sarcasm.)

Of course, I'm kind of a meddler, so I would do my best to find out.

It wasn't hard to find her. The woods aren't very thick.

I smiled when I came out in the clearing where we'd found Nico earlier that year. "How nostalgic."

Rozzie was sitting on the ground, kind of crumpled into a heap, and her eyes were unusually bright and a little puffy. "I got rid of your dad, for now," I told her, ignoring her tears. I wasn't sure if she realized she was crying. "You totally owe me."

That's when I noticed she looked a little freaked out. Because someone else was in the clearing that shouldn't have been. Cass.

Cass! "Huh..." I blinked. "So you aren't dead."

Well, that was once problem solved.

The next one I planned to tackle was how to best make her pay for what she did to my brother. Without all of his happy, he's almost like a _normal_ person. Thank goodness for his awesome. If he didn't have that, there would be no hope for him.

But, something was wrong. Cass was dirty and tired and bleeding from some places. So that was pretty much how I pictured it. But her eyes were dull. There was no recognition. I thought it was just because she was tired.

And then..."Do I know you?"

Crap.

She didn't remember. Cass Hart didn't remember anything. She didn't remember me, or Nathan. She didn't remember Thea.

Nothing.

Maybe this had something to do with why she left.

I grinned. This was perfect, somehow. Like a mystery we could solve.

And maybe her amnesia would take a little of the sting out of seeing her. "Goodness, Nathan is in for a heart attack."

Rozzie was staring up at Cass with something like horror, but the older girl was staring at me. "Who is Nathan?"

"My brother," I told her, walking over and helping Rozzie off of the ground. "You're getting your clothes all dirty," I said as I picked her up. Her legs didn't seem to be working. I guess the alternating between emotionally unstable and shocked can do that to ones limbs. "Cass has enough dirt for all of us."

Cass hurried up to us and picked up Rozzie's other shoulder. Rozzie's toes just barely dragged on the ground because she was so short. "So, I do know you," she assumed.

"Do we ever really know anyone?" I asked philosophically.

She frowned. "I think I met your mom."

Curious, I looked over at her. "Did she get me a present?"

"I don't know." Cass was staring at the ground. "Me?"

"I wanted a snuggie."

I told Cass to wait outside.

She didn't really understand why. I don't think she realized that I wasn't kidding about the heart attack thing.

So, when I stumbled in through the door, Rozzie practically draped over her shoulder, I decided to give them fair warning.

Mostly Nathan.

Nico helped me sit Rozzie on the couch. "What's wrong with you?" he asked her.

"She's in shock," I told him.

"Was there a monster attack?" Nathan inquired.

"Well," I said after a minute. "She...found something of ours."

"What?" He didn't understand.

Why aren't you reading my mind, brother! What use are those psychic powers if you don't use them?

So I just said, "Brace yourself" and opened the door.

Cass walked in.

Nathan took a big breath and...nothing.

Nothing!

His face didn't even change.

"Cass!" Nico said, standing up. "Where have you been?"

She looked at him uncomprehendingly. "Recently, Ohio." She squinted at him. "Who are you? Are you Nathan?"

For a second Nico didn't know what to say. Even my cold heart of stone twisted a little.

"That's Nico. I'm Nathan," said Nathan, not even getting out of his chair.

Cass looked at him, politely apologetic. "Sorry. I don't really remember anything."

"Anything?" I asked. "Not about your dad, or whatever?"

She looked at me uncomfortably. "You mean about being a half-blood."

That's one thing off the checklist of Important Things To Know.

Too bad she didn't remember being madly in love with my brother and then going off into oblivion and never speaking to us again.

Because that would really put a damper on torturing her psychologically when she couldn't remember what she needed to feel guilty about.

"Basically," she said, "I remember my name and that I'm a demigod, but that's it. Everything else is blank."

"If that's true, then how did you get here?" asked Nico.

Cass held up the little box she'd been holding. "It's some sort of compass. I guess it leads you to where you need to go."

"Like Captain Jack Sparrow's!" I picked it up and opened it. The needle whirled around and around in circles. I handed it back to her. "I don't think it knows what I need," I said happily.

Before she closed it, Cass looked at the needle again. I pretended not to notice that it was pointing straight at Nathan. She fidgeted and snapped it shut.

Oh, Cass. You don't even know.

"So," I said, deciding to save her, like the Good Samaritan I am. "Why do you need to be here?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just do."

"Maybe it had to do with Nico and Rozzie's mysterious trip to the Underworld that they refuse to acknowledge." I grinned at Nico as he scowled at me.

But I don't think Cass heard. She was looking at Nathan while trying not to look at him. "Did we..." she started. "Did we know each other well?"

I waited for him to spring from his chair and declare his undying love for her, the way I always expected Nico to do whenever Karson came into the room.

And I could tell that he wanted to. His mind reading powers may be on the fritz, but mine are always spot on.

Which is why it practically hurt when he said, "No. Not really. We just helped you out a bit."

Because Cass didn't remember him, and loving someone you didn't remember probably would have really freaked her out.

He looked over at me, and I smiled at him, because that's what I do. _Nathan. Poor little boy._ Can't a demigod ever catch a break?

Obviously not.

Poor heart-broken big brother.

Not that I would ever say such a thing. My brother's dismal love-life, no matter how pitiable, does not need my interjections. And certainly not my pity.

Right now, I was more interested in the fact that Cass, whom I had numerous questions for, could answer none of them. She couldn't tell me why she left us. Or where Lee was. Or where she'd disappeared. Or what she was doing.

Or why she couldn't remember anything.

Which, by far, was the most irking question.

I hate irk.

And brusselsprouts. Bleck.

Rozzie squirmed in her chair. "I'm confused..."

"Join the club," muttered Cass. She blinked and looked up at me. "Am I a mutterer?"

"A mutterer?"

"Yeah. Do I mutter?"

I blinked. "Not sure. My knowledge of your habits is limited to how much you hate psychopaths and what your breakfast preferences are." I paused thoughtfully. "And also that you get very grouchy when you're sleepy."

Cass looked at me uncertainly. "Exactly how much do I hate psychopaths?" I guess her confusion was warranted. For anyone else, it would incredibly strange for one to know exactly how they feels about crazy people.

That sort of thing just doesn't really show up in normal conversation.

"You're really not fond of them," Nathan admitted after a moment of awkward silence. None of us really wanted to get much into the whole Thea thing at the moment.

She sighed and rubbed her temples. I understand. Us Grace's can be overwhelming, what with our overflowing amounts of awesome. But usually we have to do a little more to make people really suffer. So, in a way, this problem was helping us out a bit.

Other than totally ruining my brothers chances of happiness and all.

"Do you guys know a girl named Lora?" Cass asked unexpectedly.

Nico frowned. "Yeeeeesssss," he said slowly, looking around like he was afraid that the person in question was going to randomly jump out of the cupboard singing a song from A Very Potter Musical.

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Did you remember something?" he asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

Coffee. I want some coffee.

"Not a thing," she admitted. "But I met her."

"How?"

She gestured to the compass. "It took me there first. You're mom said it would lead me to answers, and Lora gave me some, but I'm not sure how much of what she said was true."

On her stool, Rozzie was enough recovered from her terrible day to look curious. "What'd she say?"

"She said that I was a secret ninja, trained by the masters in Japan to be the most fearsome warrior of the twenty first century, specifically made to defeat the legendary Chuck Norris with my ninja skills. She also said that I was on Oprah before she got her own channel and that I founded a small country in Africa, called Cassland, where I was their beloved queen." She rolled her eyes.

I got a mug out of the cabinet and poured myself some coffee. "I don't why you'd doubt her." I got out the sugar and started spooning it in. Two lumps for taste and one more for love.

"She mentioned that we used to be partners, that she and her brother would kill monsters and I would manipulate the Mist so that they could get away with it," Cass added with a shrug. "I think that bit was true. She didn't mention her brother after that. She was the only kind living there."

I smiled at her, thinking on all of the good times we had killing things together. Nathan rubbed the gigantic scar he had on his side, curtesy of Toby.

"He's dead," I told her, stirring in creamer and taking a sip. "She killed him."

Cass frowned. "Um..."

"No worries." I grinned and sat down next to my brother. "The world's a better place."

"Is that...all she told you?" asked Nico, before the horror could set in.

Gods, that boy is so good at making others suspicious. He might as well have screamed something about her having a sister and going slightly crazy and run around the room in a speedo. Not sure what the speedo would have done. But I'm sure Karson would have been sorry to miss it. [insert evil laugh.]

"She gave me this," said Cass after a minute, pulling out a battered envelope. "Told me not to open it, lest she pull out my intestines and use it to hang up her tire swing." She frowned at the swirly handwriting. "It says _To Ella._" She looked confused. I had forgotten to introduce myself.

Oh well.

"Oh! That's me!" I hopped off the stool. "I love fanmail." I snatched it from her hand and undid the wax seal.

_Hello, fellow sister of The Awesome!_

_ Lora here. Our psycho killing little friend here can't remember a thing. It's hilarious! I didn't tell her anything about Thea, lest she turn bitter. Or maybe she wouldn't. I doubt she could really understand how much she hated that girl without remembering how it felt to have been betrayed by her. Gods know I never did._

_ I also refrained from mentioning it because it would bring up her sister, Lee. And I really doubt that'd be very helpful. Right now, she needs to work on getting her memory back, not trying to figure out where she dropped off her little sister. _

_ Along with my charming wit, I offer you a warning. _

_ Memories are what make up a person. They're quite literally a part of a person's soul. They shape someone's personality. Without them, Cass will be completely different. Whether she realizes this or not, I don't know. It's important for everyone to keep in mind. But, specifically, keep an eye on Nathan._

_ The Cass Hart we both know he was in love with (I'll save the Disney serenade for the next time we meet face to face) is not the same girl. This one is naive and clean of all of the gunk life threw at her. _

_ And he needs to know this before he gets involved._

_Ta-ta!_

_Lora_

"What's it say?" Cass asked.

"Nothing important," I told her. "Basically, Lora misses my tacos."

"That's true love, right there," said Nathan with a grin.

It wasn't important for me to tell Nathan what Lora had written.

He already knew.

**Merry Christmas!**


	8. Concussions and Offensive Driving

**Whoa. Guys.**

**This is a big day.**

**Here marks the quickest update in the history of forever.**

**Or at least my history of fanfiction...**

**Enjoy. :)**

Cass spent most of that day slamming her head into any surface available. The table. The refrigerator. The television. The floor.

She wasn't sure whether she was trying to give herself a concussion or if she just wanted to pass out to spare herself from the Grace's.

Ella hadn't exactly been reasonable before, but once she drank the entire pot of coffee, everyone had pretty much run for cover. She danced around the room, screamed musicals at the top of her lungs, and put ketchup on her face like war paint.

Then she proceeded to carry a broom around like a spear and hunted the twins, like a demented game of Hide & Seek.

For the moment, Cass was safe.

From Ella, at least.

The rest of them were another matter entirely.

The sense that all of the others knew more about her life then she did made her increasingly frustrated. And they did know something. She knew that they knew. And they probably knew that she knew that they knew.

She stopped there to save herself any more confusion.

Nico, for one, was an awful liar. He asked pointed question about what she knew and what she didn't, looked uncomfortable whenever she asked questions of her own, and looked brooding whenever he thought she wasn't looking.

Cass resisted the urge to punch him in the face. Briefly, she wondered if she should anyway. She got the feeling that was what all of them had been expecting to happen.

She sighed. _I make a bad Cassandra Hart,_ she thought dejectedly.

Thinking this, she stole a quick glance at the other Grace boy.

Nathan.

His name rang no bells.

His face didn't trigger any memories.

Her heart didn't race when she saw him.

She felt nothing towards him.

Then why was he so important!

Once again, she resisted the urge to throw the stupid compass at a wall and made due with hitting her head on the table. Repeatedly.

Which only made him glance over at her, almost laughing. "You okay?"

"No," she told the table miserably. "I'm going crazy."

Nathan gave an ironic smile, like he was sharing some secret joke with himself and didn't fell the need to enlighten her. "Ah."

He was laughing at her.

Laughing at her!

She sat up. "How do I know you?"

He just grinned. "You know me?"

Head desk. She groaned. "F...m...l..."

"Language," he scolded easily, getting up from where he sat and going over the refrigerator.

Cass watched him discreetly. He was tall and thin, like his sister, with the same dark hair and pale skin as his mother. He was attractive. She blushed, her face feeling warm on the cool surface of the kitchen table. She couldn't stop herself from noticing.

But, at times, it seemed like he went out of his way to avoid her. For instance, getting up and looking through the fridge, for what seemed like the fifth time. Like she didn't notice the fact that he always went to look for food whenever he found himself talking to her.

And, even worse, him and his mother seemed to share the same sense of humor.

Which generally consisted of keeping herself very much out of the loop.

"Nathan?" she muttered into the wood. She was saying it more to herself, trying to get a taste for it. The name felt alien on her tongue.

"Yep?"

She turned even redder when she realized he had heard her. Well, of course he had heard her! She'd said it out loud_. Geez_, she scolded herself, _I don't know who the heck I am, but so far I'm an idiot._

But she had to say something. "Were we...friends?"

Silence.

She spared a look up from the counter to make sure he hadn't just taken the next step and completely left the room. But he was still there, sipping coffee and leaning against the cupboards. "Friends?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, confused. Was that a word her poor, bruised brain had made up? She didn't think so. "Friends."

"Sure," he said with a shrug.

Strangely, that wasn't the vibe Cass was getting.

Gods, what had she done to this boy? What had she done to make him hate her so much?

And that's the moment Karson decided to walk in, and her reaction pretty much solidified the suspicion that had been creeping up on Cass's addled brain.

It hadn't taken very long, once she'd shut the door behind her and walked into the kitchen, for Karson to spot Cass, who was continually slamming her head into the wall.

Nathan's spoon stopped clinking as he stirred his coffee, and Nico stopped muttering under his breath, and it was the complete silence that alerted her to Karson's presence.

Or whom she later found out was Karson.

Then, she just thought some random, angry blonde girl had walked into the house.

She pushed herself away from the wall. "Sorry," Cass told her, like it was because she was abusing the wall that the girl's face was slowly turning red.

More silence.

I hate silence, she decided. It's unnerving. "Um..."

The angry blonde girl held up a finger for her to be quiet. "I'm gone for one day." She pointed the single finger in Cass's face accusingly. "_One day._ And I come back and miraculously Cass Hart is back from oblivion? No."

She looked at Nico, every bit as accusing, like it was his fault, somehow.

"I'm sorry..." Cass started uncertainly. "Who are you?"

Karson looked back at her incredulously. "What?"

"I...I don't really..."

"She's got amnesia," said Nathan easily, and Cass would have silently thanked him for saving her if she weren't so angry with him. "She doesn't remember anything." It was a pointed statement.

_I hate pointed statements, _she wanted to scream.

The other girl's shoulders fell in flat confusion. "Anything?"

"Nope. Not a thing." Nathan just smiled and kept stirring his coffee.

Cass shivered, sitting down hard in the chair she had been occupying. Whatever she had done to these people, it had been awful. Maybe there was another Grace sibling who she'd murdered in cold blood or something. Karson, at least, reciprocated Nathan's feelings on the matter. Whatever the "matter" was.

Ella chose that moment to reappear.

"Buddy!" she cried, all flailing arms and dried-ketchup. "I see you've met Amnesia Cass."

Amnesia Cass. Like some sort of fail-tastic superhero. Great.

On her side, Cass just smiled at Karson weakly.

Ignoring everyone's discomfort, or, more likely, reveling in it, Ella slung her arm around Karson's shoulders, almost hitting her in the face with her forgotten broom. She looked around, scratching at her make shift war paint. "Where's Rozzie?"

Rozzie. At least that was one person who didn't hate her, Cass acknowledged. "I think she was talking on the phone."

"Here I am." Rozzie entered the kitchen and joined the others. She looked at Nathan. "Can I steal your car?"

While that would have made some people suspicious, Nathan just shrugged and pulled the keys out of her pocket. "Sure," he said, tossing them to her. "What for?"

She blinked, looked at Cass, and said, "I think I might have a friend who can help enlighten us a bit."

* * *

><p>Rozzie drove.<p>

And it was awful.

That's what Cass was thinking the third time she found her face making hard contact with the cold window involuntarily as the offensive driver made a sudden right turn into a parking lot.

Cass blinked. A parking lot.

_Good Lord, we're saved_, she thought weakly.

Karson, Nico, Ella, and Nathan all spilled out of the back on the truck. Karson and Nico spilled out because they were afraid for their lives. Nathan spilled out because his feet got tangle up in Ella's, and Ella spilled out because it looked like fun.

Rozzie just hopped out easily, like she almost killed everyone on a normal day. "Lex will be easiest to find," she said simply, patting a slightly green Nico on the back condescendingly and walking off.

It was only then that Cass bothered to look around her. There were at a high school three, maybe four hours away. She thought they might have crossed the border into another state, but she had been too focused on keeping all of her bodily fluids in her body to pay attention to signs on the road.

But it was late, and there was no way school was in session.

"Isn't it still summer break?" Nico asked Rozzie.

But she shook her head. "Different district."

"Lucky them."

"You don't even go to school," she reminded him, grinning. But her smile snapped off as soon as she saw the glare she was getting from Karson.

Nico hadn't seemed to notice.

Ella, however, did, and proceeded to smack it off of Karson's face. Judging by the expression that replaced it, Karson did not appreciate the intervention.

"Isn't it a little late for school?" asked Nathan, jogging forward to walk with Rozzie and, Cass had the sinking feeling, to avoid her.

Again, Rozzie shook her head. "Small town football."

By now, they could all see the football field, and hear the cheering of an entire town. Cass wasn't sure how they'd managed not to hear it. It was deafening.

Rozzie, who was the only one who seemed to know what was going on, walked up to the table in front of the gate and handed to man there a crinkled up slip of paper that Cass saw was some sort of pass.

"This is only for you and a friend," he told her apologetically.

"Even if we're cute?" asked Ella, inspecting the paper like there might be small print saying that Ella Grace could enter simply because she was amazing.

The man just smiled.

"We're here to see my friends," Rozzie tried. "I moved away recently, and wanted everyone to see each other. But it was a surprise, so I couldn't asked for anymore passes."

"Who?"

"Ari Cooke, and Jordan and Lex." She pointed to a section of the stands that was particularly rowdy. "Lex is with the band."

"I know Lexie," he said. "She's friends with my daughter." He grinned and waved all of them inside. "Have fun."

"Thanks," Rozzie said with a wave as she ushered everyone through the gates and made a beeline towards the section she had been pointing to.

"How do we find Lex?" asked Nico. He obviously knew what was going, too. No one else did. Rozzie had been tight lipped.

"Easy." She smiled. "Follow the glitter."

"What?" Cass asked, uncomprehendingly.

But Rozzie didn't bother to answer. She leaned against the rail that separated her from the people sitting down. There was a bunch of kids in clean white uniforms holding instruments. She tapped one on the shoulder. "I'm looking Alex Damon?"

The kid thought for a minute, then screamed, "If I say Hillshire, you say farm! Hillshire!"

"Farm!" someone screamed below. "_GO MEAT!_"

Ella sighed. "I love band kids."

He looked around for whoever had screamed in response and grinned. "Lex! Someone wants you!"

A girl stumbled out into the aisle and made her way up the steps slowly, like she was making sure they didn't move out from under her. Then she looked up and saw Rozzie and bolted for the top of the steps. "Friend!" she squealed, flinging her arms around Rozzie's neck.

She was even shorter than Rozzie, which was a feat, and her hair was teased and pulled back into a huge bun. She wore a maroon jacket over some kind of costume. It read _Alexandra Damon_ on the left side over a crossed flag and rifle, and one the back, _COLOR GUARD _was written in big silver letters.

"Follow the glitter" was a good strategy, because it seemed to float around her in a haze. A lot of it found a new home on Rozzie.

Nico glared at it, like he would stab the cloud of sparkles with his sword if it dared to go near him.

"What're you doing here?" she asked, pulled herself away from her long lost friend. Before Rozzie could answer, she noticed the troupe of demigods behind her. "Who are you all?" She seemed to know Nico, because when she waved at him, he didn't look at her like she was insane.

"We need Ari," Rozzie told her directly.

"Am I not enough for you?" she said in reply, grinning. "I'm easily the more interesting of the two." She paused. "I've also had three bottles of Mountain Dew in the past hour. So forgive me if I act a little tipsy."

"Who is Ari?" Cass asked no one specifically. Confusion was quickly becoming an almost comfortable state to be in. As it should have been, considering how acquainted she was becoming with it.

Lex just kind of looked at her. "Hmm..." Then she pulled a cell phone out of her pocket. "I'll call her."

Cass, who had only recently learned the evils of cell phones, recoiled.

The other girl paid her no attention. She waited. And waited. And waited.

"Gah!" she screamed. "Must be too loud. I'll try Jordon."

She put the phone to her ear again. And waited.

Then she spazzed out and kicked the empty air in from of her. "I'll kill that girl one day." She shoved the phone back into her pocket. "When in doubt," she said with a grin, "try the food stands." And with that, she put one arm around Rozzie and one around Nico, which was difficult since he was so much taller than her, and dragged them away.

"I love hotdogs," Ella confided in her brother.

He raised an eyebrow. "Was that a hint?"

"What?" She blinked at him innocently. "For you to buy me a delicious hotdog and make me eternally happy? I'm offended you would think such a thing."

And then they happily walked off into the crowd.

Cass and Karson had to choose between following or standing there and looking like idiots.

The choice was made for them when they heard another scream and a resounding smack that could be heard over the roar of the crowd as the football team did something impressive. Cass didn't know enough about the game to understand what was going on.

She did, however, understand the shriek of unhappiness that pierced the noise.

Rozzie looked at her, amused. "Lex found Jordan."

"Why didn't you answer your phone!" the girl demanded.

Someone cowered before her. "I didn't hear!" the victim insisted.

"You never hear!"

"Then why on earth did you expect anything different?"

Lex drew herself up pompously. "I, unlike some lesser people, always look for the goods in others such as yourself." The injured party snorted. There was another smack. "I need Ari."

Jordan, no longer cowering, was an inch or two taller than her friend, which was still pretty short. She had thick blonde hair that she'd pulled back in a less ridiculous way that Lex's teased bun, and bright brown eyes. She had mustard on the side of her mouth and an uneaten hotdog in her hand. "Why? We're much better company."

"Agreed," said Lex solemnly. "But we lack her special talents," she added pointedly, doing magic fingers in Jordan's face.

Suddenly, Jordan understood. "Ah." She shoved the hotdog into her mouth. Then she said something through her dinner that came out as more of a jumble of gibberish than words and rushed off into the stands.

"She's going to find her," Lex translated.

"Who the eff is Ari!" Cass demanded angrily.

Lex ignored her. She looked at the time on her phone, and then up at the scoreboard. "We performed at half time, so I can leave whenever. Am I the only one who needs to use the bathroom?"

Cass thought it might have been the three Mountain Dews that prompted this statement. But then Rozzie and Nico went to follow her towards the doors that led into the school. "Uh..."

Her new acquaintance turned around and looked at her, walking backwards. "I think you need to use the bathroom."

Ella skipped after them happily, and Nathan followed easily behind.

That left Karson and Cass, who were both angry, though not necessarily at the same thing. "I'm going to kill someone," declared Cass.

"Make it Nico," said Karson bitterly under her breath before starting off after the others. "And make it hurt."

Hmm.

Maybe, Cass decided, it wasn't just her. Maybe angry was Karson's natural state.

**Don't worry guys. Things will pick up in the next chapter.**

**Which will also be in third person (Cass). Unless you guys find that totally and completely unacceptable. :)**

**Also, you guys did good on reviewing. Thanks for the ego boost!**

**MAKE MY HEAD EVEN BIGGER!**

**and tell me what you think.**


	9. Bathroom Conversations with Psychics

**I'VE GOT A COMPETITION IN SIX DAYS. And we just finished out show...Friday. Yay.**

**So I could tell you all to wish me luck and tell me how awesome I am, I wrote this.**

**That's the only reason though. Not because I'm in love with Nathan or anything...**

As far as bathrooms go, the one at Such-and-Such High School (Cass's eyes had glazed over once Rozzie and Lex had started to gibber about such details that meant next to nothing to her) was unimpressive.

And Cass thought that Nico looked far too comfortable sitting on the sink in a girls' bathroom.

He just sat, joining in on the conversation now and then, rather pointedly ignoring Karson's glares, which were becoming more and more frequent and less and less civil. "Do you remember when you dared Jordan to eat that slug?" he said suddenly, like they were old friends. They might have been, considering that Cass understood just about nothing that was going on.

Yay.

"And she did it?" Lex said, smiling as she remembered. "I got it on video." She was tugging at her bun in the mirror, trying to get her hair tie out of the tangle of knots that made its living as her hair. She seemed to finally realize that it was just too big to be allowed and was slowly working it back to its normal, if not somewhat bushy, size. The process basically included ripping knots out with her fingers, and something her hair came out with it, so she was just holding a little tangled ball of fluff in her hand. She didn't seem to mind. "Ari and I made a movie out it." She grinned.

There was the mysterious Ari again.

Cass looked up sharply, opened her mouth, and took a breath, but, probably due to the three Mountain Dews she had previously consume, Lex began to gabble before she had a chance to start her interrogation.

Karson was a less social alternative to the enthusiastic conversation going on, but Ella was sitting on the disgusting floor next to her feet, singing her cleverly parodied songs about how much Karson loved Nico (which is not how it seemed to Cass) and constantly untying her shoes, just because she could.

Which left Cass with Nathan.

Which they both viewed as a problem.

Nathan, on his part, seemed relaxed, lying back against a stall with a piece of grass sticking out of his mouth, tapping his foot in the air, in time with some song that only existed in his head. But Cass just knew that inside, he was disgusted by the fact he had to be within ten feet of her. Sharing the same air. He was probably thinking about her pit stains, or how bad her hair looked, or that big red mark on her face from Rozzie slamming her into the window of her car. Maybe even taking up on Ella's astonishing ability to parody songs to make something up about how much he hated Cass Hart.

She could only hope is what anything other than country. She could stand being insulted. But not if it was a wannabe cowboy doing the insulting.

On her side, Cass was about as uncomfortable as she had been when Lora was spitting rapid-fire pop culture references at her while they ate cookies shaped like zombie bunnies with their heads on crooked. Except for the fact that it was about ten times worse.

In other words, she was miserable.

Not to mention that Ella Grace kept shooting her looks that Cass found confusing. Like she was waiting for one of them to explode. Either Nathan from hatred, of Cass from unease.

That seemed like the kind of thing Ella would enjoy.

But Cass was too inwardly invested to notice that it wasn't only Ella doing the look-shooting at the two of them. Nico and Karson were certainly shooting their fair share, and after a short bit of gossip in Lex's ear, her and Rozzie felt the need to join in.

It was the overwhelming silence that finally broke through Cass's thoughts and made her look around at them all. "What?" she demanded.

Nathan snorted.

And everyone hurriedly went back to his or her own discussions. Or glares, in Karson's case.

Cass looked at her reluctant companion. "What?" she asked again.

He glanced at her, eyebrow raised, and said nothing.

Oh, how she would grow to hate that stupid eyebrow and it's ability to rise.

Before she could make Ella's day and explode, the door opened and Jordan walked into the bathroom with whoever Ari was supposed to be.

Regardless of what Cass had expected, Ari was a wholly un-mysterious looking person. She was tall, especially compared to Jordan and the even shorted Lex. But really, she was tall for anyone. She had long, wavy brown hair and very large, expressive eyes. Cass coldn't tell what color they were, because they seemed to change from blue to green and back again. She was wearing a _Hogwarts P.E. _t-shirt under a maroon hoodie, and Cass couldn't tell whether she was tan or pale either, because her face in its entirety was painted dark blue. "'Sup?" she asked with a wave and a laugh.

Everyone was quiet.

Then Ella did her job and filled it. "You're blue! I love blue!" She darted up from the floor and grabbed Ari's face, her palms coming away covered in blue and Ari's cheeks having a lack of paint in curiously hand-shaped spots.

"I am blue. That is correct." Ari looked spectacularly un-bemused, which made Cass nearly give into the urge to slap.

It would have been more out of frustration at her lack of control than her irritation at the tall girls lack of Just-Met-the Grace's syndrome.

But before she could decide which road to take, Ari sat down, cross-legged, in the middle of the circle the group of demigods had made, which seemed a little attention-grabby to Cass.

"So," she said, rubbing her hands together as Cass looked at her. "Let's get started."

The amnesiac looked at her blankly. "Get started on what?"

Ari's shoulders drooped. She turned around to look at Rozzie. "Didn't you tell them?" she accused. "I don't usually do the explaining."

Jordan grinned at her. "Does it mess with your cosmic balance?"

"Not any more than you do, I'm sure," quipped Lex.

Rozzie opened her mouth to tell her that, yes, they had been told. Then she snapped her mouth shut. "Nope," she said sheepishly, remembering. In her excitement at having thought of Ari in the first place, she'd forgotten to inform anyone of why she was important.

Nico saved her. "Ari's a psychic."

Ari grinned. Ella grinned. Nathan grinned. Rozzie grinned.

Cass didn't feel like grinning. "Excuse me?"

"I'm a psychic," Ari repeated. "An awesome person with copious amounts of sensitivity to the future. I also make really excellent music playlists."

Lex hurried to agree. "Her musical taste is almost as good as my own."

Karson looked at Rozzie, whom she already harbored a strong dislike for. "A psychic."

"Yep."

"And I'm the queen of England."

Lex gasped in the corner and went into a low bow that looked like it hurt. "Your Majesty."

Jordan thumped her on the head. After dodging Lex's return hit, she looked at Cass, her head on her friend's head to keep her from further attacking. "It's true."

"True!" said Lex, straightening suddenly and kicking Jordan in the shin. "I win," she said flatly.

Rubbing her shin, Jordan had to agree. For now.

The proclaimed psychic sighed. "You'd think in a world with gods and monsters and even an Oracle, you'd be a little more receptive to the 'impossible,'" she said, using finger quotes. "You're the daughter of a god, after all."

Warily, Cass opened her mouth to say something in her defense, but Ari just held up a finger for her to be quiet. That seemed to be happening to Cass a lot lately. "Poseidon, specifically."

She didn't notice Cass's frown, because that was new information to her. Or, at least, new since she woke up with that cat in the alley.

"Your mom lives in Massachusetts, no?" she continued. "Or she did. She died a while ago, didn't she." It wasn't a question. Her voice was casual. She saw no need to beat around the bush if Cass herself no longer cared about her own mothers' death. "Also, you detest cabbage but you like Brussels sprouts, which is weird. And you like watching football on the television, but you can't stand watching baseball. And, last but not least, you love..." she paused in the middle of her rant, as if something suddenly occurred to her. "A boy," she finished unimpressively. "You met him at a fast food place and said something about him being gay."

Nathan snorted again, and Nico allowed himself a little smile.

"Uh..." was all Cass could manage, and Ari made a flippant gesture.

"Is that enough proof for you?" she asked.

"No," said her victim at length. "Considering I have no idea if any of those things are true or not."

"Oh, right." Ari blinked. "The amnesia."

Rozzie stopped her before she could freak out the poor girl anymore. "That's what we need help with," she said hurriedly. "We need to know more about why she can't remember anything."

The tall girl looked from Rozzie to Cass. "Hmm..." she blinked. "That's tough." She squinted, leaning closer to Cass. Putting her hand on the other girls shoulder. Getting altogether too close. "It's all blocked off." Then she knocked on the girl's forehead. "Nothing getting through there."

"You're popping my bubble," murmured Cass, but the girl ignored her.

Ari was uncomfortably close, and her big eyes were peering into her soul. Blue. Green. Blue. Green. And back again. Cass shivered. The brunette was silent for a while, her eyes flicking around Cass's face like she was reading something, like the pages of a book. Maybe she was. "Someone took them," she said finally.

"Well, I got that much," Cass snapped. This was pointless. If she could rip herself away from the crazy girl's touch without slamming her hand in to the bathroom stall behind her, she would. She considered doing it even with the stall, but decided it would be useless and only make her look like an idiot and give her a headache.

She was getting enough of those without banging her head into things.

The psychic wasn't bothered. "No, that's not right..." she said slowly. She frowned. "You offered them."

Thinking back to her conversation with Nathan's mom, she realized that was more along the lines of what she'd been told. "As a price," she remembered. "But what did I get in return?"

"What do you think you got?"

Cass frowned. "I don't know. I don't have anything." And it was kind of true. Not to mention pathetic. She wondered if she had anything before. Nathan probably knew. Not that he would feel the need to tell her, what with him hating her and all. He probably found her lack of memories hilarious. Like Ella did.

Ari looked at her closer. Any closer than they were already, and they would be touching noses. "It's fuzzy. Someone's hiding it from me." Then she looked over at Rozzie. "This might be more your area than mine."

Her friend blinked. "Huh?"

"This had your little dealmaker written all over it."

Rozzie paled. "Oh."

"Who?" asked Nathan.

Cass jumped. It was the first thing he'd said since they'd gotten in there.

But Rozzie just waved her hand in dismissal. "Tell you later," she said snippily. Nico looked over at her, worried, and whispered something in her ear.

In response, she just tensed up considerably and refused to look at him. Whatever question he'd asked, he took that as an answer in the affirmative. His face grew dark.

"Fine," snapped Cass. "But what did I get in return?" To be honest, that wasn't one of the questions that she had really considered after her little chat with a goddess. But now that it'd been brought to her attention, it burned in her mind like a fire.

Like, for real. Her head started to pound.

"Excuse me," said Ari politely before grabbing Cass's face and squishing her cheeks together. She twisted her victims face this way and that, like maybe her ear held all the answers she desired.

Then she sat back. "All I can get is that you offered them willing for the chance at changing...something..." Ari seemed irritated at her lack of detail. "Like, to change the future."

"I wanted to change the future?"

"Hopefully you still do," said Ari reasonably. "Or else it would have been kind of pointless."

Cass could give her that.

Nathan opened his mouth to ask Rozzie more about this dealmaker, but Ari started talking before he got a chance. "Nico?"

"Hmmm?" he asked, distracted.

"You and Rozzie need to get going on whatever it is you're doing. Your window of opportunity won't last must longer."

Rozzie and Nico looked at each other, and then slowly turned to look at Karson, a little guiltily.

Karson, who had been shooting them evil looks and thus being studiously ignored, seemed surprised when they turned towards her. "What?" she demanded.

"Well..." Rozzie said, and for a moment Cass thought she was actually going to explain something, which would have been a rare thing indeed.

But once again, Ari got there first. "And Rozzie...?"

The shorter girl looked at her.

Ari's face was sad. "You won't last much longer."

Rozzie paled. "But..."

The look that Ari gave her was final. "If you don't do something, this will end."

Obviously, Cass had no idea what was going on. When did she ever? But at least in this case no one else did either.

Nathan broke the silence. "Got any words of wisdom for me?" he asked with a grin.

"Yeah," said Lex with a grin of her own. She'd ducked into a stall to change into something less ridiculous, so her color guard uniform had been replaced by jeans, Chuck's, and a t-shirt for some band Cass had never heard of. "Don't use the vending machine on this floor. The chewy Sweetarts always get stuck."

Jordan rolled her eyes. "Why aren't you ever serious? You're like, anti-serious."

"My idiocy is one of my many charms."

Ignoring her friends in their corner, Ari looked at Nathan. "Words of wisdom?"

"Sure."

"You should get your sword ready."

The ground rumbled.

Ella and Lex both said, "Yes!" like that was their cue to be awesome. Lex reached under the sink and brought out two things: a shining hand held battle-axe and a long wooden staff. "This is my favorite part," she confided in Jordan.

The blonde was buckling a sword and its scabbard to her hip. "Come on, Lumberjack." Jordan but her arm around Lex's shoulders and dragged her out into the hallway.

"I am _not _a lumberjack!" she wailed, waving her weapon in the air and slinging the staff onto her back. "It's a battle-axe! You don't chop trees with a battle-axe."

"Should we follow?" asked Karson uncertainly. "I mean...are they even demigods?"

"They can take care of themselves," said Ari reaching into the bag she'd brought in with her. Something wailed outside, but was abruptly cut off.

Cass assumed it had been Lex, because she promptly screamed, "TWO POINTS!"

"Maybe we should..." she started, but Ari seemed to have a thing for interrupting unimportantly things.

Because she brought out a crossbow suddenly, loaded a bolt, slung her bag over her shoulder, and left without a word.

Leaving Nico, Rozzie, Karson, and Cass to feel like idiots sitting in a girl's bathroom for no reason.

Ella and Nathan were unfazed. "Well, don't just sit there," said Ella, hopping up from her seat. Shadows seemed to reach for her as she walked out of the room. She looked over her shoulder. "If I kill whatever it is in a really awesome way, will you buy that hotdog?" she asked her brother.

He stood and dusted off his pants. "Only if you beat me to it."

She considered. "Challenge accepted." And they both left.

"Are they always like this?" demanded Cass angrily.

Karson thoughts for a moment. "More or less."

"But usually they compete over tacos," added Nico. "The hotdog is a nice change."

And with that, it was unanimously decided that the Grace siblings were crazy and they all followed after them off into battle.

**TELL ME HOW I AWESOME I AM!**

**Quick! I'm dying from low self-esteem! **

**Plus, reviewing is just a super nice thing to do. ;)**


	10. In Which The Plot Thickens

**Sup?**

**I'm just going to come out and say it here. This is not my best chapter. Unfortunately, I've been really distracted by another fanfiction (which is much fun) and put Favors on the side burner. So I really felt the need to update like, ASAP. **

**But, in the wise words of Callie, something is better than nothing.**

_**Nico di Angelo, son of Hades**_

There was a short period of time where it seemed like everything would be more or less okay, as far as inevitable disasters go. It might have been a three, which is generally considered a blessing for kids with a habit of causing disasters. Usually, mine tend to be, like, eights.

Add that into the Grace's habit of increasing the level of the disaster just for the fun of it, and the result isn't pretty.

But, this time, I had Ari to depend on, which kind of evened things out. I hadn't really known her for that long, and even then only through Rozzie, who I also hadn't known for that long, but she seemed like the kind of person who could handle disasters.

Jordan and Lex seemed to find it a good way to prove which one of them was more awesome than the other, and while it may have increased the mayhem, it was certainly interesting to watch. Jordan would make one monster a shish-ka-bob, Lex would cut of it's already dissolving head just to say that she had a part in the poor thing's destruction, and then a battle would ensue between the two of them on who killed what, and then Lex would hack something in half with her axe, and the whole thing would start all over.

Yes. I know that was a run-on sentence. If I had an English teacher, they would cringe.

Luckily, I do not have an English teacher. So I can do whatever the heck I want.

But my free-reign on the literary world is probably not what you care about.

You all care about killing things! Like true men. And women. Because I'm sure they care about killing things, too. Gods know Karson does.

In fact, she almost killed me.

An arrow thudded into the wall next to my nose, the fletching doing a little dance as the shaft vibrated from the impact. "Watch it!" I shouted over the chaos, pulling out the arrow for future use.

But she just looked at me all innocently, brown eyes wide, and shot another arrow in the other direction.

I do not understand girls.

Someone needs to write a manual.

Except that there is no one who could, because I don't think even girls understand what's going on in their heads. It's all hormones and hairspray up there.

And killing things.

It was Ari who got that last one. The short cross-bow bolt flew through the air with a twang, sinking deep into the thing's forehead. It was quiet for a second, and then the monster dissolved into nothing. The bolt fell to the floor, hitting the tiles with a clatter.

"Well," she said, setting the boltless cross-bow on her shoulder, "that was anti-climactic."

I looked around, and I had to agree. Lex, Jordan, Ari, and Karson seemed to have done almost all of the work. Lex and Jordan were completely covered in monster guts, and bolts and arrows were stuck into the walls all over the place. Ella and Nathan, upon seeing the lack of anything really entertaining, had simply sat down and argued over something that would have been interesting if it hadn't been about a theoretical battle in Lord of the Rings. Rozzie and I had each only killed one monster.

Cass was standing uncertainly off to the side, her hand on the short dagger she kept hidden under her t-shirt, and for a moment I was confused. She had never used a knife before. She didn't even carry weapons.

But then I remembered her face when Ari had rattled off all of the random facts in the bathroom. The mention of Poseidon had brought no gleam of recognition to her eyes. In fact, she looked overwhelmed. Was just one more thing she didn't remember?

Did she not remember how to fight?

Because that's a potential future problem.

But before I could say anything, she asked, "What were they?"

Lex picked up a severed head by the long hair on the top and stared at it. "Not sure," she admitted, sniffing it. Cass looked a little green around the gills. "New monsters keep popping up all over the place."

"Well, either they're new or the Greeks didn't feel the need to write much about them," added Jordan, poking the head with the tip of her sword. It swayed like a pendulum.

"That's disgusting," Cass informed them.

The two just shrugged as Lex let it flop to the floor.

Ari readjusted her hoodie, pulling on its hem anxiously. "I didn't think it would be that easy," she said, muttering to herself.

"What would be?" asked Rozzie curiously, taking the girl's cross-bow and putting it back in Ari's bag. The taller girl barely noticed.

"I have a bad feeling," she said by way of answering.

Ella looked up at her, leaning her back lazily against the wall. "Says the psychic?"

Karson scowled. "That's probably not a good sign."

Lex snorted. "When do we ever get _good_ signs?" she pointed out. "Personally, I'd be a little freaked out if it started raining cupcakes out of the blue or something."

"No you wouldn't," said Jordan. "You'd be out there with a laundry hamper to catch them all."

"Eh." Lex grinned. "I'd be freaking out on the inside."

But Ari wouldn't let even her friend's conversation shake her out of her anxiety. "We should go back outside," she said, her eyes shifting left and right.

Lex just shrugged, her axe resting on her shoulder. "If you say so."

Rozzie smiled weakly. "Maybe it'll be raining cupcakes."

"Here's hoping!" said Ella, standing up and brushing dust off of her backside.

I didn't say anything as everyone else filed out of the doors. Ari's nervousness was contagious. My stomach acid churned like a hurricane, and I was worried to go out the doors. Cass looked almost like I felt. "Are...uh, you okay?" I asked, self-consciously.

"I'm not in a particularly good mood, no," she admitted. "Confused."

"Maybe it's better if you don't remember anything," I offered.

She looked at me like I was an idiot. "Well, geez, Nico, I don't know. You tell me. Since everyone here knows more about me than I do," she said flatly.

I blushed. I'm not good with people.

But then she sighed. "I wasn't worried about that, though. Now I'm just trying to figure out why they aren't there in the first place. One problem at a time."

I took a deep breath to say something wise, from one really messed up kid to another, but Karson cut me off. "Nico!" she screamed from the other side the door. "Get out here."

"Fine, fine," I muttered.

"Hurry." Her voice was abnormally sharp.

Which is saying something, considering that even since I've got back she's been about as civil as a butcher's knife.

So hurry, I did.

And the silence hit me like a bullet.

Not that it was really quiet. Lex and Jordan were gone, but Ella, Nathan, Rozzie, and Karson more than made up for them in noise. Ari was the only one not freaking. She just looked worried.

Not because it was quiet. Because it was _too quiet._

You couldn't hear the screaming crowd, or the buzz of cars, or the sweaty football players screaming insults at each other.

We were alone.

There was nothing.

My heart thudded in my chest. "Wha...?"

"Where is everyone?" asked Rozzie.

I heard footsteps thudding on concrete, and Jordan was rushing towards us. "No one," she said, coming to a stop. "No one is there."

"Where's Lex?" Ari asked.

"Here!" she called from the other direction. "There's nobody in the school. The field?" she asked Jordan.

"Nada."

"What's going on?" Lex asked, nibbling on her finger. Her eyes looked overly bright.

"Good question," some one said above us.

All of snapped our necks towards the voice so quickly, they all popped in harmony.

Some guy was kind of lounging on the roof, right above the door. He looked completely normal, except that his hair was, like, dyed blue. And also he was there. That was odd.

Considering that...you know. No one else was.

"Yo," he said with a grin. "Rozzie! Long time, no see."

Karson looked at her accusingly. But Rozzie looked rattled enough without her glares and ignored her accordingly.

"And Cass!" he continued, like he didn't notice the discomfort. "Fancy seeing you here."

If he didn't before, he certainly did then.

"Do I know you?" Cass asked uncertainly.

I looked over at Rozzie. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were moving like she was praying. Or just muttering to herself.

"Well, you don't anymore. You _did._" He grinned. "But I know you."

I was really confused. Had he known her before the Thea episode?

"And is this a recent acquaintance?" asked Nathan evenly, voicing my thoughts.

The boy looked at him through squinted eyes. "Quite recent, actually."

"Stop playing with them, Jack," demanded Rozzie. "What the Hades is going on here?"

Jack. Question mark.

Jack grinned. "I had nothing to with this," he said, waving his hand towards the field, where the lack of people was it's most obvious. "Threats aren't really my style."

"Threats?" said Karson. If there's one thing that girl understands...

"Yep." Jack smiled, a real one, the kind that was too big for his face. "Or maybe it was a challenge."

"Who took everyone?" asked Ari.

"My parents were in that crowd," whispered Lex, her voice cracking. I never heard her say anything in a whisper. I didn't know she _could_ whisper. "Where are they?"

"We'll find them," comforted Jordan.

"No you won't," said Jack, and I seriously wanted to punch the guy. "And you shouldn't be worried about her parents when you should be worrying about your own."

"They weren't even here."

"You think it's just the high school?"

The silence was overwhelming.

"Okay," huffed Karson. "I'm confused. I don't like being confused. So stop talking in riddles and tell me what the heck is happening here so that I can get on with my life."

Jack shrugged. "Ask Nico." It didn't seem odd that he knew my name.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"You're little quest made someone very angry," he called. "Consider this"—here, he waved towards the emptiness again—"a warning."

Rozzie looked over at me morosely. "You mean they don't want us looking for it?"

"Specifically, they don't want you finding it," amended Jack. "They want it. You want it. See the problem?"

"So they took the whole town?" asked Ella, more intrigued than horrified.

But that didn't stop her words from making everyone else shudder.

"Yep." He grinned. It wasn't, like, an evil grin or anything. It was more like the one that Ella got sometimes when she was about to make something explode. "Genius, isn't it?"

I ignored that last comment. "How do we get them back?"

"Ah!" said Jack, delighted. "Good question. Very forward."

"Well, that's one of us," said Jordan.

"From where I'm sitting, I see two options," Jack continued. I doubt he was even paying enough attention to Jordan to have heard her. "Option one: go home, bury your little heads in some other demigod nonsense and hope that all of the people come back."

"That sounds like a dumb option, what's number two?" Ella asked cheerfully. She would be cheerful. She'd finally found her soul twin.

"You could always go about your business like you have been. But that will only work if you beat them, won't it?" he mused.

"You make me very uncomfortable, sir, what with your proclamations of disaster and whatnot," said Lex. She looked like a child who'd just seen a dog put down.

Ari grabbed my arm. "Nico, you need to go."

I moved out of her reach angrily. "And what will happen to your parents then?" I demanded. I'm not good at snap decisions. I needed to find _it_, but how was I supposed to put Ari, Lex, and Jordan at risk to do it?

Then Lex punched me in the face.

Not hard, but hard enough.

"We're big girls, Nico," said Jordan, holding back Lex's arm so she couldn't hit me again.

"Is my nose bleeding?"

"Yes," said Lex in pride. "Now leave. I have no idea where you should go, but...yeah. Go and kill things. Like a good little half-blood."

"And try to get thrown in jail like the last time," said Ari, laughing, but it sounded fake.

"Bah!" scoffed Lex. "Details." And then she smiled, and because she was Lex it looked like she meant it. "But I can't cook, so bring my mother back to me before I starve."

"I can make grilled cheese," offered Jordan.

"I'm pretty good with cereal and microwavable things," added Ari.

"I can make sandwiches!" announced Lex.

"This is all heart-warming, a bunch of friends coming together in the face of adversity and all, but you really should get going," said Jack with a yawn. "They'll be sending backups any minute now."

Karson cursed at him. "Who the heck are you, anyway?"

"No one of importance," he answered, and he was right. "But my employer, he's a biggie. Try not to disappoint him, dearie."

He looked at Rozzie. "And you, my love, have been difficult." He blinked at her, and she looked at him, horrified. "Deal or no deal?"

"I need more time," she insisted weakly.

"We always need that one thing we don't have," Jack clucked. "When you decide to do what needs to be done, you just give me a call. We'll work something out." He winked and was gone.

Karson stared at Rozzie suspiciously, but when she took a deep breath to accuse her of something shady, Nathan said, "Well, I guess that means it's time to leave."

By "that" he meant the tremendous exploding noises getting closer to the high school. "Probably not a bad idea," I admitted. "Come on."

I grabbed Karson and Rozzie's hands, which surprised them both. Rozzie because she was completely spaced out and Karson because I think she hated me. But then Ella hopped up on her back, and Nathan and Cass put a hand on Rozzie's shoulders, and I looked at Lex and Jordan and Ari, waiting for them to join in the clump.

"We'll stay," said Ari.

"We can't just let them raze the town, now can we?" said Jordan with an evil grin.

Lex was picking at her eyes. "I have eyelash glue all over my eyeball," she declared, pulling bits of gunk off of her lashes.

"Charming," muttered Karson.

"I'm not leaving you here," Rozzie told them, even though it would have been more _me_ leaving them. She winced with every loud noise.

"Do I need to punch you in the face, too?" asked Lex, and I'll admit she looked like a menacing little Keebler elf, 5'2 and carrying an axe twice her height.

Then something inside the high school exploded with enormous power. Brick crumpled, and the glass of the doors shot outward, like evil little raindrops, and there wasn't much of a choice.

In seconds, the dark night sky had been replaced by the darkness of the Underworld. I felt the familiar despair and was right at home. Rozzie, Cass, the Grace's, and myself. And Karson.

Our ticket to _her._

**I'LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU SOON!**

**But in the meantime, feel free to review. ;)**


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